Special Issue: Vol. XV, No. 1 (Summer ’23)

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This paper aims to establish a link between some of the last humanitarian crises of this century (including the forced migration therefrom produced) and the suggestion that trade can lift people out of poverty and can resettle their lives back on trails. It analyses the world economic scenario in the middle of humanitarian conflicts to reply to a question: “[w]hat has trade got to do with it?” For addressing this common-usage questioning, good practices, World Trade Organization (WTO) Programmes, (Preferential Trade Agreement) PTA and (Free Trade Agreement) FTA clauses are herein brought to light and suggestions come out of this scrutiny to support the idea that inclusive trade can help resolve the issue of overcrowding and over-migrant population at the most common destinations in times of humanitarian crisis, having a focus on refugees’ protection, inclusion, and integration. In the end, it brings about a few suggestions and good practices on how inclusive trade can have real concerns to make a successful trade-peace nexus, not just as a matter of assistance, but also to accommodate economic policies in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and South America, whenever a humanitarian crisis is deflagrated and vulnerable forced migration is at stake.

Increasing recourse to extraterritorial leverage in the field of environmental law can promote the uptake of environmentally beneficial practices by market actors and raise the levels of environmental ambition of exporting Members. Nonetheless, it also pulls the fabric of the multilateral trade system. This prompts a fresh look at the long-standing debate on aim-and-effects. This paper employs an analysis of the anti-deforestation npr-PPM standards under challenge in EU — Palm Oil to highlight the shortcomings of aim-and-effects approaches. Analyses of aim-and-effects to establish product “likeness” cannot address the question whether regulatory distinctions drawn on legitimate policy grounds are applied in such a way that they unjustifiably afford protection to domestic products. In the face of high levels of regulatory complexity, this is very problematic. Analyses of aim-and-effects to determine “less favourable treatment” cannot help to identify more subtle forms of potentially unjustifiable protective application. This also poses several challenges. Against this backdrop, the paper highlights the centrality of the Chapeau of Article XX and defends its role in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) system. In times of environmental unilateralism, identifying all aspects in the application of a measure that are irreconcilable with good faith and that may unjustifiably afford protection to domestic products will be more important than ever before..

The cognisance of gender concerns is vital when contemplating policies to improve the socio-economic climate and stimulate growth. The primary purpose of this study is to locate women in structural and normative frameworks of the Indian Investment Agreements (IIA). It enables us to identify gender issues persisting in IIA due to the lack of any study and propose relevant reforms. The position of women in IIA due to the lack of extensive study and a considerable gap in the literature has been mostly unknown. Women are an important driver of socio-economic development. Creating greater socio-economic opportunities for women has compelling reasons, and inequalities impose development costs on societies. Hence, this study shall be significant as it will be the first detailed study to map women and examine Indian laws and policies from a gender neutrality perspective. This inquiry will pave the roadmap for a more genderinclusive and responsive IIA.

[•]Linkages between international economic law and sustainable development have been debated extensively, and the question remains open whether trade and investment agreements can, through careful crafting and compliance, foster or frustrate efforts to integrate economic progress with social and environmental protections, promoting more sustainable development over time. At a midpoint in the Sustainable Development Agenda, considering a pressing global climate emergency and the need to undertake and achieve progressively more ambitious commitments under the Paris Agreement, it is important to consider how trade and investment agreements can promote global efforts to respond to climate change and other sustainability challenges worldwide. This article explores how regional economic accords may foster or frustrate climate action. For this purpose, the authors review how trade treaties can invoke important tensions affecting sustainable development, particularly material and normative risks, laying out the types of sustainable development provisions that may be found in international trade and investment treaties, including those related to the purpose or object of the agreement, the inclusion of exceptions or conflicts clauses to prevent trade and investment rules from undermining climate change and sustainable development efforts, provisions to promote dialogue and cooperation on climate action and sustainable development, and efforts to enhance trade and investment in more sustainable, low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilience goods and services, and whether the agreements present process innovations. By briefly analysing recent agreements negotiated by the European Union with Chile, the Mercosur and Kenya, such provisions and process innovations are illustrated. The authors also consider negotiations undertaken in the context of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) as a new benchmark for economic accords which seek to promote climate and sustainability objectives. From the comparison of these agreements, some conclusions are drawn concerning the future of trade, investment and sustainability agendas, and future legal research needs.