International Trade Law

Catalog description

The primary goal of this course is to learn the fundamental or basic principles of the international trading system contained in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the treaties of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Students will learn how rules of the GATT/WTO legal system are made and how they are used in domestic legal systems such as the United States. There are five additional learning goals in this course. First, students will gain factual knowledge about how the WTO is run and how disputes are resolved among WTO member countries. Second, students will learn to analyze and critically evaluate how GATT/WTO legal rules are applied in specific cases with a view to gaining and improving their problem solving skills in international trade law. Third, students will gain a broader understanding of how law works in an increasingly global and heterogeneous world and how the proliferation of mega-regional trade agreements and trade wars and COVID-19 have affected the global trading regime. Fourth, the course will promote student interest in learning more about international law on their own including where to find the resources they need for further study. Finally, the paper requirement in the course will develop writing and argument skills.