LibGuides: International Trade Law Research: Home

Researching International Trade Law

This guide is intended to provide researchers with assistance in understanding international trade, particularly as practiced by the United States. There are a number of treaties and regional trade agreements that have been concluded by the U.S., which has resulted in a body of trade dispute settlement case law. It is not intended to cover other regional free trade agreements, such as can be found in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and in South America (MERCOSUR). Some information regarding European Union materials is available at the end of this guide.

The guide provides a list of introductory reading materials, links to commercially developed databases, and links to governmental and intergovernmental bodies that are involved in the creation or administration of trade agreements.

Beginning Your Research

The following are a few examples of titles in Biddle Law Library providing information on international trade law. Many more can be found by searching Biddle's Catalog Search or Van Pelt's Franklin catalogs using "international trade law" as a subject heading.

Advanced Introduction to International Trade Law (eBook) by Michael J. Trebilcock; Joel Trachtman
ISBN: 9781788971430
Publication Date: 2020
This introductory resource explains the basic structure and principles of international trade law, as developed under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the WTO.
Free Trade Agreements, from GATT 1947 to NAFTA Re-Negotiated 2018 (print and eBook) by Ralph Folsom
ISBN: 9781640201309
Publication Date: 2019-05-28
This book examines the origins of free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs) in Article 24 of the GATT 1947 agreement.
International Trade Law, Including Beyond Trump, in a Nutshell (eBook) by Ralph Folsom
ISBN: 9781647083038
Publication Date: 2021-02-24
This Nutshell examines the economics and rules governing international trade, with special emphasis on global and U.S. trade agreements in the disruptive Trump tariff war era. After introductory chapters on trade transactions and cross-border enterprises, it analyzes the World Trade Organization (WTO) package of agreements, Trump blockage of WTO dispute settlement, regulation of imports (including customs law), and trade remedy responses to import competition. Export controls, foreign corrupt practices, preferential free trade and customs union agreements, technology transfers and a chapter on Beyond Trump and Trade follow. Trade policy alternatives are discussed and highlighted as Biden Impacts throughout this Nutshell.
International Trade Law Including the WTO, Technology Transfers, and Import/Export/Customs Law (eBook) by Ralph Folsom
ISBN: 9781640201408
Publication Date: 2017-11-15
Coverage of the World Trade Organization and its many agreements, followed by Customs and Import/Export Law, and ends with coverage of Technology Transfers across Borders. Principles is intended to provide considerably more depth, analysis, citations and related documents than found in a Nutshell.
The Regulation of International Trade (print) by Michael Trebilcock; Robert Howse; Antonia Eliason
ISBN: 9780415610896
Publication Date: 2012-11-29
In light of the growing debate over globalization, the authors include special sections with examinations of topics such as: agriculture services and Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights, labor rights, and the environment migration competition. Now fully updated, this fourth edition includes full coverage of new developments including the Doha trade round, the proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements, the debate on trade, climate change and green energy, the response of the trading system to the 2007--10 financial and economic crisis, the controversy over trade and exchange rate manipulation, and the growing body of WTO dispute resolution case law.
World Trade Organization (WTO) (print) by Bernard M. Hoekman; Petros C. Mavroidis
ISBN: 9781138823136
Publication Date: 2015-10-13
This book separates the facts from the propaganda and provides an accessible overview of the WTO's history, structure and policies as well as a discussion of the future of the organization. It also confronts the criticisms of the WTO and assesses their validity. New to the second edition: discussion of legislative amendments to the WTO Agreement, in particular Aid for Trade, the Agreement on Trade Facilitation and the Bali Package evaluation of case law developments and major disputes since 2007, including analysis of the WTO and the financial crisis - in particular the trade policy responses of WTO Members and institutional response reflection on recent shifts to mega-regional agreements (TPP, TISA, TTIP) and their implications what next post Bali?
The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law (print and eBook) by Daniel Bethlehem (Editor); Donald McRae (Editor); Rodney Neufeld (Editor); Isabelle Van Damme (Editor)
ISBN: 9780199231928
Publication Date: 2009-03-15
Over the past 10 years, the content and application of international trade law has grown dramatically. The WTO created a binding dispute settlement process and in resolving disputes, the judicial organs of the WTO have built up a substantial amount of new international trade law. Emerging fromthis new WTO process is an international trade law system that is in some respects self-contained and in other respects overlapping and linked to other international legal, economic and political regimes. The 'boundaries' of trade law are now generating enormous interest and controversy which, at abroader level, is subsumed within the debate over globalisation.The detailed development of the rules of international trade is being examined with increasing frequency by scholars, government officials and trade law practitioners. But how does it fit with existing systems? How it is modified by them? How does the international trade law system affect andmodifiy other regimes?This Handbook places international trade law within its broader context, providing comment and critique on contemporary thinking on a range of questions both related specifically to the discipline of international trade law itself and to the outside face of international trade law and itsintersection with States and other aspects of the international system. It examines the economic and institutional context of the world trading system, its substantive law (including regional trade regimes) and the settlement of disputes. The final part of the book explores the wider framework ofthe world trading system, considering issues including the relationship of the WTO to civil society, the use of economic sanctions, state responsibility, and the regulation of multinational corporations.
Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization (eBook) by David Palmeter; Petros C. Mavroidis
ISBN: 9781139177931
Publication Date: 2012-03-05
Procedural issues are often considered too technical for proper treatment in legal literature. In this extensively revised 2004 edition of Palmeter and Mavroidis' authoritative book on WTO dispute settlement, the authors discuss all WTO dispute settlement provisions and their interpretation in WTO jurisprudence. All the decisions of panels and the Appellate Body are discussed, from the inception of the WTO in 1995 until the end of May 2003. This volume - an essential tool for practitioners, diplomats and government lawyers - is a comprehensive study of compulsory third party adjudication in international law.
The GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement System (print) by Ernst Ulrich Petersmann
ISBN: 9041109331
Publication Date: 1997-02-01
The GATT and WTO dispute settlement systems have become the most frequently used international mechanisms for the settlement of trade disputes among governments. The 1994 Agreement Establishing the WTO introduced a historically unprecedented new dispute settlement procedure for conflicts involving trade in goods and services, trade-related investment measures, and intellectual property rights. This procedure provided for the compulsory jurisdiction of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, WTO Panels, and the WTO Appellate Body. The first 18 months from the time the WTO Agreement came into force on 1 January 1995 witnessed more than 50 invocations of the new dispute settlement procedures by a large number of countries, including many from the developing world. This large response, and the proposals for further extending the scope of WTO law, suggest that the WTO dispute settlement system will continue to be the most frequently applied, worldwide systems for the legal settlement of trade disputes among governments. The Annexes include a useful collection of relevant texts and tables of past GATT and WTO case law.
WTO - Institutions and Dispute Settlement (print) by Karen Kaiser (Editor); Rüdiger Wolfrum (Editor); Peter-Toblas Stoll (Editor)
ISBN: 900414563X
Publication Date: 2006-05-29
Two of the greatest achievements of the Uruguay Round were the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a - compared to the GATT - fully-fledged international organization and the creation of a new, uniform and binding dispute settlement system. While the failure of the Ministerial Conferences in Seattle and Cancún revealed first cracks in the institutional structure of the WTO, the operation of the new dispute settlement system has so far been a remarkable success.In a practical and authoritative article-by-article account, this volume covers the legislative history, interpretation and practical application of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization, Articles XXII, XXIII, and XXIV GATT 1994, the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the Trade Review Policy Mechanism and the Understanding in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under the GATT 1994.Written by a team of distinguished scholars and practitioners, the volume is an indispensable work of reference for all those interested in the WTO institutional fundamentals and the dispute settlement system (international lawyers, scholars and students of WTO law, diplomats and international civil servants, members of NGOs).
Legal Principles in WTO Disputes (eBook) by Andrew D. Mitchell
ISBN: 9780521873260
Publication Date: 2008-12-11
Principles play a crucial role in any dispute settlement system, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) is no exception. However, WTO Panels and the Appellate Body have been too timid in using principles, sometimes avoiding their use when appropriate and at other times using them without fully acknowledging that they are doing so. Perhaps more worryingly, these bodies often fail to delve deeply enough into principles. They tend to overlook key questions such as the legal basis for using a given principle, whether the principle is being used in an interpretative manner or as applicable law and the meaning of the principle in public international law. This book establishes a framework for addressing these questions. The use of such a framework should allay fears and misconceptions about the use of principles and ensure that they are used in a justifiable manner, improving the quality of dispute settlement in the WTO.
WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (print) by Bryan Mercurio; Yang Guohua; Li Yongjie
ISBN: 904112361X
Publication Date: 2005-06-10
In the course of the first decade of the existence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) has shown itself to be the foundation upon which the stable bas of the organisation rests. In essence, the DSU created a system of binding dispute settlement based on legal rules and procedures closely resembling a domestic, judicially based court system. The DSU established the procedures and rules to solve the dispute between the WTO Members and its formation has unquestionably added to the stability and positively influenced the performance of the international trading system. In short, the DSU is the procedural law within the WTO legal system. Although a strict system of precedent is not contemplated in the DSU itself, a system of de facto precedent has emerged and every panel or appellate body carefully considers past cases in its decisions. Accordingly, a rich body of case law has developed from the jurisprudence of the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB). This major new publication is the first comprehensive exploration of this jurisprudence. Through an article-by-article interpretation of the DSU, this book analyses how the panels and Appellate Body have read, interpreted and construed the provisions of the DSU. Its expert authors provide detailed juridical essays on each of the 27 articles of the DSU, with precise commentary on how panel and Appellate Body reports and arbitral awards (over 100 to date) affect the interpretation and application of the various DSU provisions. The coverage also includes the special or additional rules and procedures referred to in some of the agreements covered by the DSU, especially the manner in which the DSB has applied such rules to anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, and textiles. In addition, the volume reprints all of the DSU-related documents for easy reference. WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: A Detailed Interpretation provides complete and through evaluation of the practical working meaning of the DSU.

Commercial Databases

HeinOnline: U.S. International Trade Library
This HeinOnline database contains U.S. government publications relevant to international trade, including compiled legislative histories, Congressional Research Services reports, decisions by the U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. International Trade Commission, and the Federal Circuit. Secondary Sources include scholarly articles and practitioner tools.
Bloomberg Law: International Trade Practice Center
Links to U.S. statutes and regulations, decisions by the U.S. Court of International Trade, International Trade Commission, and the Federal Circuit involving international trade. Also contains secondary sources such as international trade news and practitioner tools.

Trade Law Guide This link opens in a new window
An index that serves as a gateway to specific provisions of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, instruments and other subject matter
World Trade Law This link opens in a new window
WorldTradeLaw offers access to primary source documents related to international trade law, as well as a full-text search engine for GATT/WTO decisions, a portal to third-party resources, and a discussion forum. It also includes the Dispute Settlement Commentary tool, which provides statistics, summary, indexing, and analysis of WTO dispute settlements.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
Full-text publications and statistical information from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) covering agriculture and food, education and skills, emerging economies and transition economies, employment, energy, enterprise, industry, and trade, environment and sustainable development, finance and investment, general economics and future studies, governance, international development, nuclear energy, science and information technology, social issues and migration, statistics sources and methods, taxation, territorial economy, and transport. Note: Some of the statistical data tools require Internet Explorer.

U.S. Government Bodies

Office of the United States Trade Representative
This office is responsible for developing trade policy and negotiating trade agreements.
Office of Trade Agreements Negotiations and Compliance (TANC)
A bureau within the Department of Commerce, TANC works to end barriers to foreign trade.

TANC's database contains texts of all free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties.

U.S. Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade has nationwide jurisdiction over civil actions arising out of the customs and international trade laws of the United States.
International Trade Commission (ITC)
The ITC is a quasi-judicial agency that investigates unfair trade practices and intellectual property infringement in the context of international trade.

The ITC creates and maintains the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

The Office also publishes a list of the free trade agreements the U.S. has with 20 countries.

International Bodies

WTO: World Trade Organization

WTO Analytical Index: Starting point for researchers. Locate decisions on topics or articles of an agreement from a GATT or WTO dispute settlement body or WTO Appellate Body.
Find disputes documents: Search official documents associated with the WTO dispute settlement process.

UNCITRAL: The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

Working Groups develop texts on the field of international trade, which includes model laws, treaties, and legislative guides.
It produces digests to assist with uniform application of its texts and CLOUT, which publishes excerpts of cases that have interpreted provisions of UNCITRAL texts.

UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Provides technical assistance to countries, particularly developing economies

International Trade Center (ITC)

Joint agency of WTO and UN designed to support "the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises."

European Union

EU Treaties Database consists of external trade treaties.
EUR-Lex Database consists of summaries of the EU's external trade legislation.
European Commission and the Committee on International Trade consists of information about EU trade policy.
EU Bookshop consists of trade-related publications.