Central to this book is an analysis of the obligation upon states to ensure non-discrimination in the form of adherence to the principles of national treatment and most-favoured nation treatment. These are critical principles for both international trade law and international investment law, yet the case-law in both fields reveals significant inconsistencies regarding key elements of non-discrimination. Tribunals have invoked ‘regulatory purpose’ to assist in identifying relevant discrimination, but have done so without offering a definition of regulatory purpose and in significantly differing ways. This book explains these inconsistencies and offers a new definition of regulatory purpose.

In The Interpretation of International Investment Law: Equality, Discrimination and Minimum Standards of Treatment in Historical Context, author Todd Weiler demonstrates how historical analysis should be adopted in the interpretation of international investment law obligations. Weiler subjects some of the most commonly held beliefs about the nature and development of international investment law to a critical re-appraisal, based upon meticulously assembled historical record. In the process, the book provides readers with a fresh perspective on some of the oldest obligations in international law.

Papers presented at the second annual World Trade Forum Conference held in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 28-29, 1998.

The principle of non-discrimination is fundamental to the regulation of international trade in goods and services. In the context of trade in goods, the concept of 'like products' has become a key element of the legal analysis of whether a trade obstacle violates GATT non-discrimination obligations. The equivalent concept of 'like services and service suppliers' in GATS rules on non-discrimination has received little attention in WTO jurisprudence. In light of the remaining uncertainties, Nicolas Diebold analyses the legal problems of the GATS 'like services and services suppliers' concept using a contextual and comparative methodology. The 'likeness' element is not analysed in isolation, but in context with 'less favourable treatment' and regulatory purpose as additional elements of non-discrimination. The book also explores how far theories from non-discrimination rules in GATT, NAFTA, BITs and EC as well as market definition theories from competition law may be applied to 'likeness' in GATS.

The University of Michigan Press is pleased to announce the second volume in an annual series, the World Trade Forum. The Forum's members include scholars, lawyers, and government and business practitioners working in the area of international trade, law, and policy. They meet annually to discuss integration issues in international economic relations, focusing on a new theme each year. The World Trade Forum 1998 deals with the issue of regulatory barriers. Contributors focus their attention on the implications that government intervention has on the principle of nondiscrimination, the cornerstone of the World Trade Organization. The chapters, which cover both the positive and the normative level, deal in particular with the issue of "like product" definition, and with mutual recognition agreements. The relevant WTO case law is presented and analyzed, and the roundtable discussions are primarily aimed at clarifying to what extent a constitutional function should be assigned to the WTO organs, if at all. Contributors include: Christoph Bail, Jacques Bourgeois, Marco Bronckers, Thomas Cottier, William Davey, Paul Demaret, Piet Eeckhout, Crawford Falconer, Olivier Guillod, Meinhard Hilf, Gary Horlick, Robert Howse, Robert Hudec, Patrick Low, Aaditya Mattoo, Petros C. Mavroidis, Patrick Messerlin, Damien Neven, Kalypso Nicolaidis, David Palmeter, Ernst Ulrich Petresmann, Andre Sapir, and Michel Waelbroeck. Thomas Cottier is Professor of Law, Institute of European and International Economic Law, University of Bern Law School. Petros C. Mavroidis is Professor of Law, University of Neuchâtel.

The principle of national treatment, or the non-discrimination clause, is a principle that applies across many fields of international economic law. This book offers a unique horizontal examination of the principle as it applies within international tr