Website Survey 2014

Journal of International Economic Law, 2015, 18, 225–231 doi: 10.1093/jiel/jgv004 Advance Access Publication Date: 26 February 2015

Website Survey 2014 Marylin Johnson Raisch*

American Society of International Law, Topic Overview, International Economic Law http://www.asil.org/international-economic-law The American Society of International Law presents a newly re-designed and reorganized web site, which includes easy access to materials dealing with important topics of international law such as international economic law. This section of the web site summarizes the subtopics included in international economic law and provides links to the substantive briefs on topics within the area known as ASIL Insights. Brookings Institution, Trade http://www.brookings.edu/research/topics/trade#/?tab¼1 The Trade topical section of the Brookings site posts the elements of a briefing book on policy proposals that include analyses of trade agreements in terms of their probable impact on international cooperation and efforts to strengthen the global economy. Society of International Economic Law, http://www.sielnet.org/ This is an umbrella organization for scholars and practitioners worldwide with a focus on regional and developing country participation in conferences, debate, research, and shared expertise. African, Asian, Latin American, and global conferences have been organized since its inception in 2007. *

Associate Law Librarian for International and Foreign Law, John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library, Georgetown Law Center.

C The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. V

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I . I N T E R N A T I O N A L T R A D E LA W Institute of International Economic Law http://www.law.georgetown.edu/iiel/ The Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown Law Center facilitates thoughtful and scholarly research on a broad range of subjects that concerns the law of international economic activity. Created in 1999 under the direction of University Professor John H. Jackson, the institute brings together students and visiting researchers at Georgetown Law for lunch discussions and the possibility of academic concentration on international economic law, with an emphasis on trade and dispute settlement.

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TradeLawGuide, http://www.tradelawguide.com (requires subscription) TradeLawGuide is a comprehensive database with a powerful new type of search engine that searches across PDF files of official awards, decisions, and other WTO documents and ‘notes up’ (i.e., ‘Shepardizes’ in American terms, including both ‘noting up’ and collecting cases judicially considered) WTO decisions by tracking how subsequent WTO reports, awards, and decisions have considered specific passages in WTO jurisprudence. The database features a citator that collects all jurisprudence under a treaty provision for the WTO system. The search is powerful, contextual, and time-saving.

A. Agriculture Organization for Economic Co-operation Development, Trade and Agriculture Directorate, http://www.oecd.org/tad/ Standards and policies for international trade in conjunction with sustainable agriculture, fossil fuel subsidies, and water use hold strong implications for legal and trade regimes. This OECD site collects publications and reports on conferences and issues of aquaculture, export restrictions, labour, and climate change. European Commission, Agriculture and Rural Development, Trade Statistics, http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/trade-analysis/statistics/index_en.htm Factsheets on EU28 agro-food trade with the world, various regions, and individual countries are presented at this site with dated PDF documents at the country level. Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network, http://www.ratin.net/ Wholesale market prices for agricultural products by country are posted here along with historical market data. In combination with legal principles of trade in agriculture, the supply of visualized data for use by trade lawyers and policy makers is enhanced through sites such as this one, which comes complete with charts and graphs. Requires registration for login; any further restrictions on access are not made explicit at the site.

B. Competition International Bar Association, Antitrust, and Trade Law Section, http://www. ibanet.org/LPD/Antitrust_Trade_Law_Section/conferences.aspx An extensive list of links to conferences on antitrust and trade is presented to provide access to the documentation of these meetings through one readily accessible page. Membership login provides access to speaker papers for many conferences; other materials, such as slides, are available publicly through further links at each conference archive.


Worldtradelaw.net, http://www.worldtradelaw.net (requires subscription) Summaries and commentaries on WTO Panel and Appellate Body decisions are provided, along with links to the literature, awards organized by article of the agreement, submissions, and more.

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C. Customs Regulation Customs and International Trade Bar Association, CIT Jurisdiction Legislation, http://citba.org/CITJurisdictionLegislation.php Research resources for the proposed ‘United States Court of International Trade Modernization Act,’ serve to collect legislative history and background documentation. United Stations International Trade Commission, Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb, http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/user_set.asp (requires subscription) Data is available through this official site, home of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (available for 2015 at http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/index.htm).

Global Policy Forum, International Trade and Development, https://www. globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/international-trade-and-development-157.html ‘Global Policy Forum is an independent policy watchdog that monitors the work of the United Nations and scrutinizes global policymaking. We promote accountability and citizen participation in decisions on peace and security, social justice and international law.’ This perspective is brought to bear on development as well as general globalization. World Economic Forum, E15 Initiative: Strengthening the International Trading System, http://www.weforum.org/projects/e15-initiative-strengtheninginternational-trading-system Analysis of existing trade instruments and initiatives in the world trading system with a view to the forum and its multi-stakeholder projects to enhance trade. A uniquely included topic is that of financial regulation in a recent report, The Role of Financial Services in Society: Towards Responsible Financial Innovation (5 December 2014); reports may be freely downloaded in PDF format.

E. Dispute Settlement United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Project on Dispute Settlement in International Trade, Investment, and Intellectual Property, http://unctad.org/en/Pages/DITC/DisputeSettlement/Project-on-DisputeSettlement-in-International-Trade,-Investment-and-Intellectual-Property.aspx The Technical Cooperation portal, http://www.unctad.info/en/TC/ ?mode¼AllProjects, is part of the listed programs. Examples of the cooperation projects are profiled with regard to the donors and the focus country.


D. Development International Institute for Sustainable Development, http://www.iisd.org/ A Canadian-based research public policy research institute, IISD presents extensive commentary on a wide range of themes and initiatives under the ‘our Knowledge’ tab at its portal. Some but not all of the summaries focus on Canadian issues that intersect with international development perspectives, even within a firstworld jurisdiction, such as lands of First Nations peoples within the indigenous context.

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European Commission, Dispute Settlement, http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/accessing-markets/dispute-settlement/ Dispute settlement both at the WTO and in a framework based on the WTO agreements and explained and presented in chart format at the EU DS site. The site addresses policy and legislative initiatives; it includes links for tracking ‘ . . . proposed a regulation to establish a legal and financial framework for investor to state dispute settlement. It manages any possible financial responsibility deriving from investor-tostate dispute settlement by allocating between the EU and the Member States the financial responsibility on the basis of who adopted the treatment responsible for a breach of the agreement.’

Global Arbitration Review, http://globalarbitrationreview.com/ (requires subscription) An ‘international journal of public and private arbitration’ that contains invaluable news, briefings on pending matters, book reviews, and conference reports. Valuable for both practice in arbitration as well as tracking important disputes with implications for strategies in trade, investment, and commercial areas on a global scale. Published in London by Law Business Research, Ltd.

F. Intellectual Property Centre for International Governance Innovation, International Property Rights, and International Trade: An Overview, https://www.cigionline.org/publi cations/2012/5/intellectual-property-rights-and-international-trade-overview The ‘Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, non-partisan think tank focused on international governance.’ The page and its overview illustrate the availability of the CIGI papers series, which is available to researchers for download under one of the Creative Commons licenses. European Commission, Intellectual Property, http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/ accessing-markets/intellectual-property/index_en.htm The EU intellectual property portal includes data on medicines, geographical indications, and goods detained on suspicion of IP infringements. A separate link is provided to the European Patent Office.

G. Regional Legal Systems and Regional Integration African Economic Outlook, Statistics Portal http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/statistics/ Statistical data continues to be among the most relevant set of resources for use in connection with legal and policy research. The portal at the African Economic Outlook site provides GDP and other basic indicators by country and also in the format of Excel spreadsheets, free for downloading.


International Seed Federation, Dispute Settlement, http://www.worldseed.org/ isf/dispute_settlement.htm Position papers and resources in a specific area, with implications across topical lines, with mediation, conciliation, and arbitration on issues that relate not just to agriculture but also broader trade and intellectual property issues.

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Centre for the Analysis of Regional Integration, http://www.sussex.ac.uk/caris/ This centre at the University of Sussex, UK, provides specialized analysis and critique of matters related to regional integration in many contexts, both WTO and regional policy, with reports available at the site. ‘CARIS has developed a systematic framework for the evaluation of Regional Trade Agreements named the “Sussex Framework.”’ Reports at the centre are available at the site and their work is also done in cooperation with CASE (Center for Social and Economic Research, http:// www.case-research.eu/en/about).

I I. I NT ER NATI O NAL HEAL TH LAW Global Health and Human Rights Database, http://www.globalhealthrights.org While principally related to human rights, this joint project of Lawyers Collective and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University uniquely indexes case law, national constitutions, and international instruments. By providing judgments and information on standards in sanitation and occupational safety, many topics of relevance to international economic law and global commerce may be researched here, complementing the development of information resources at the World Health Organization.

Global Health Justice Partnership, http://www.yaleghjp.org/ A project of Yale Law School and the Yale School of Public Health, specific projects on human rights and intellectual property relates TRIPS to human rights in a policy paper and in a news feed that selects IP and trade-related reports and resources. I II . IN T E R N A T I O N A L F IN A NC E Research in International Economics and Finance, https://sites.google.com/site/ riefnetwork/ This European academic network sponsors opportunities for PhD candidates in international economics to present papers and includes the possibility for publication of presented papers in the Journal of International Economics, http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-economics/. The web site is a source for older papers from conferences dated 2007 through 2011; it appears that approximately two years pass before the papers are posted freely at this site. PSE (Paris-Jourdan Sciences Ećonomiques – Paris School of Economics); CEPII (Centre d’E´tudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales); CEPREMAP; (Centre Pour la Recherche Ećonomique et ses Applications); CIREM (Centre d’Informations et de Recherche en Ećonomie Mondiale); Universita` Bocconi (Milan). Library of Congress, International Finance, http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/ BERA/issue7/finance.html


Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, European Economic Policy, http://www.sieps.se/en/forskningsomraden/european-economic-policy A wide range of projects on Europe from this independent policy body is linked in PDF from a generous list that deals with several topic areas. Unemployment, the financial crisis, and governance issues for the region are covered.

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It may not be well known that the Business Reference Services at the Library of Congress includes resources for international finance. Sources may be in the main library or the law library, with the latter specializing in trade policy, treaties, and trade law resources.

I V. I NT ER NA T IO NA L E CO NO MI C TH E ORY Levy Economics Institute, http://www.levyinstitute.org/ Publications and policy briefs are made available through this academic institute and its scholars and participants in its conferences to promote wider public education in economic policy and theory. V. I NT ER NAT IO NAL E NV IR ON M EN TAL LAW International Trade Centre, Trade and Environment, http://www.intracen.org/ itc/projects/trade-and-environment/ This joint agency of the WTO and the United Nations maintains projects on environmental exports as well as a large program on trade and environment. Its blog and publications focus on sustainable and environmentally sound products, including food, and the recent awareness of product sourcing from fairly traded and sustainable sources, particularly from developing countries. Carbon emissions and biodiversity are major issues of independent studies and reports, available at the site.

United Nations Environment Program, Economics and Trade Branch, http://www.unep.ch/etb/index.php Trade and poverty reduction form two of the more unique aspects of trade and environment that are the concern of this division and branch of UNEP. Briefing papers on the ‘green economy’ and full reports are available for free download. CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, http://www.cuts-citee.org CUTS International (Consumer Unity & Trust Society) has grown from a rural Indian communication tool to a civil society organization and think tank representing consumers within an emerging trading economy working with the WTO and other international organizations to help draft trade agreements in South Asia as well as brainstorm for the reduction of trade barriers by other means as well. The work of the centre provides regulatory impact assessments and reports on consumer protections initiatives around the world. This is an excellent source of jurisdictional and regional surveys of investment and competition regulation.


National Bureau of Economics, International Finance and Macroeconomics Program, http://www.nber.org/programs/ifm/ifm.html This section of the NBER web site links to a very useful 2009 paper that in itself contains hyperlinked footnotes to important papers of the period surrounding the time of the financial crisis of 2008 and which appeared in the second number of the NBER Reporter for that year, entitled The Global Financial Crisis: A Selective Review of Recent Research in the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program. Links are to papers that may be free or restricted to a subscription; it was not possible to test all links for the purpose of this bibliography.

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VI . IN VE S TM EN T Investor-State LawGuide, http://www.investorstatelawguide.com/ (requires subscription) Investor State LawGuide contains full text of investment treaties, including bilateral investment treaties, along with dispute settlement in publicly available ICSID, NAFTA, and ad hoc tribunal decisions. It maps the world of investment treaty law by capturing the relationships between treaties, arbitral rules, cases, and other key materials. Using the same software and search system as TradeLawGuide, it searches across awards, treaties, and institutional documents by subject, specific article, and keywords to pinpoint sections of those documents, which are displayed as scanned texts for accuracy. These materials are not gathered as usefully anywhere else on the web.

V II . BL O G S: S UB S T A N T I VE W EB L O G S W IT H P O S T I NG S O F T E N R E L E V A N T T O I N T E R N A T I O N A L EC O N O M I C LA W CIGI (Centre for International Governance Innovation) Blogs, http://www.cigionline.org/blogs

CLS (Columbia Law School) Blue Sky Blog on corporations and capital markets, http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/category/international-developments International Economic Law and Policy Blog, http://worldtradelaw.typepad. com/ielpblog/ Customs & International Trade Law Blog, http://www.customsandinternational tradelaw.com/


Investment Arbitration Reporter (IA Reporter), http://www.iareporter.com/ (requires subscription) News headlines on important disputes and arbitrator profiles are among the unique resources offered by this news and analysis service. It is also a source of investment arbitration awards, from ICSID and other arbitral bodies, many of which may not be available elsewhere or may appear on a delayed basis in other forms of publication.