Dr Mona Paulsen

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Development Studies and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

None. Students with no previous background in public international law may find it helpful to consider consulting a standard textbook such as M. Evans (ed.), International Law (5th ed., 2018) or G. Hernandez, International Law (2022).

The course aims to introduce students to the exciting, dynamic world of international trade – a vital driver of growth and development. This course will focus on the World Trade Organization (WTO): its principles, rules, practices, and institutions. In addition to students’ doctrinal studies, select topics will grapple with the broader political and economic contexts that shape contemporary challenges with trade and the growing interdependence of our globalised economy.

This course focuses on the core legal principles and agreements that form the multilateral trading system. Students will predominantly evaluate the legal obligations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a foundation for all WTO agreements. That said, students will assess the rising importance of plurilateral, regional, sectoral, and informal agreements, which form part of the growing trade governance of goods and services.

Students will begin by exploring various theories about globalisation and the rationale for open markets. Students will evaluate why states trade with each other and the economic issues central to understanding the legal aspects of the multilateral trading system. After that, we examine the multilateral trading system’s legal, economic, and political foundations.  Students will draw upon the theory and practice of the multilateral trading system to weigh questions concerning the role of the state and debates concerning trade liberalisation and complex global supply chains, including industrial and subsidy policies.

The central aim of the course is for students to gain a solid theoretical understanding of WTO principles and practices, to gain the skills to evaluate WTO rules, and to debate the future of the multilateral trading system. Students will examine the most recent developments in international trade agreements and jurisprudence. To do so, students explore WTO rules in context, with opportunities to link topics to real-life events and contemporary challenges. In addition, students will investigate the evolving roles of the WTO, including its rulemaking, dispute settlement, and deliberative functions. By the end of the course, students should be able to develop reasoned arguments about the practice of the multilateral trading system and consider emerging cross-cutting issues respecting economic security, digitalisation, emerging technologies, climate change, and other resilience and financing challenges.

Students with deeper interests in development issues and the political economy of trade may complement this course with LL4AV: International Economic Law and Development.

This course will have two hours of teaching content each week in the Winter Term and two additional hours in the Spring Term. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of the Winter Term.

One 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Reading assignments are provided for each seminar on Moodle and draw from various primary and secondary source materials, accompanied by reading guides and handouts to enhance student participatory learning. Indicative reading includes assigned textbook chapters, relevant WTO rules, and extracts from WTO dispute settlement reports. Additionally, students can engage in academic and policy debates based on various cross-disciplinary materials, including guest speakers, videos, podcasts, and academic scholarship.

The course relies upon a digital textbook: J. Hillman et al., International Trade Law from Multiple Perspectives. Every effort is made to provide online reading assignments to enhance accessibility. Other helpful textbooks include P. Van den Bossche & W. Zdouc, The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization: Text, Cases and Materials (5th ed., 2021); S. Lester et al., World Trade Law, Texts Materials, and Commentary (3rd ed.  2018); and R. Howse et al., The Regulation of International Trade (4th ed., 2013).

Primary WTO source materials are available for download from the WTO’s website.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.