Book Description

The volume focuses on five cases, all of which remain cornerstone trade-environment cases of the WTO. The subject matter of these cases reflects five basic issues in the clash between trade and the environment: public health, air pollution/ozone depletion, food safety, destruction of endangered species, and biosafety. These five issues surface dramatically in international disputes over tobacco, reformulated gasoline, beef growth hormones, commercial fishing methods, and genetically modified organisms. In the second edition of this book, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder joins the original editors to update and contextualize the five case studies in new introductions to each section. These introductions provide an overview of developments since the first edition, including subsequent related cases. The second edition also includes updated bibliographic materials. In their penetrating analyses of these cases and their vast implications, the authors take into account the entire disciplines of both trade law and environmental law, noting especially the points of friction between the multilateral instruments in each field and the developing jurisprudence of the WTO Dispute Settlement with regard to the exceptions specified in Article XX of the GATT. The articulated standpoints of all parties governments and NGOs on both sides of the controversy are probed for agendas, whether stated or unstated. No one involved in international trade or environmental activism can afford to ignore this vital publication. The information it provides (on WTO jurisprudence, on current and pending environmental initiatives, on the science behind the disputes), no less than the fresh and convincing analysis it holds forth, make it an essential tool for understanding some of the most crucial issues in international law today.