UGENT
International Economic Law
B001751A
2024-2025
Anna Sonnenschein
, Introduction
International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
GATT: one of the main sources of law for this course
→ We can bring it to the exam (it is the only thing we can bring!!!)
EXAM! 100% written exam with 3 types of questions
→ Theory, cases (applying the theory in practice) and essay type question (only 1 with our personal opinion
fueled by the inside gained during the classes)
→ What to study: only what is said during the classes
International economic law is quite uneasy to define
→ It is not a sharply defined area of law, and we will find different names and titles for this course
o US: international trade law
o World trade law, international trade regulation
1°: law => It is a law course that relates to economic activities
2°: Why economics? To indicate that it is about the entire economy and not just about trade
→ Trade si the core BUT over the year it became clear that there are other things that are important as well
→ + investment => it goes hand in hand with trade
o Investment = setting up a business
→ + financing these economic activities
3°: international/ global dimension
→ This aspect is twofold:
o It is about economic activities in an international way: it is about cross border economic
activities
▪ From a legal perspective, we get the attention that if a situation si cross border, the
situation becomes more complex since we have two jurisdictions that come into play
o BUT it is also about international law
▪ That means that the main sources and matters of this course are those of international
law, international public law (so often, in other universities, the class is through by
public law professors)
▪ BUT we will look at it through the perspective of the businesses: what is the impact for
business and for the contract concluded by the businesses
International economic law is treaty law => the main sources are treaties since it is an international public law
→ A treaty is an agreement between states
→ Usually when we think about business law, we will think about only national laws and maybe rules of
private international law BUT here we have a look at rules of public international law that impose duties
on the states and the citizens, businesses of these states
This course has many links with other courses
→ Economic law (about the national law)
→ International Business Transactions (about a cross-border business from a private law perspective)
→ International Commercial Arbitration (about private law and procedural law)
→ Public international law (the basis for this course)
→ EU Trade Policy (this is the closest with this class and might have some overlaps) => it is zooming on the
EU position on the whole story of the international economic law
2
, International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
Relevant treaties
=> Agreements on international economic activity
GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Almost 80 years old now)
→ “the rules”: it is the backbone of ITL
WTO = World Trade Organisation
→ It is the organization that governs the rules of the GATT
→ It is an organization that is in crisis and a growing number of people are asking what will happen with
that organization (It is still functioning BUT in crisis)
→ One of its strengths is its dispute settlement system
o It has been for a long time and has been a wonderful feature of international law and seen as
the most efficient dispute settlement system in the entire world
o BUT again, the WTO is in crisis and its dispute settlement system even more (situation of
deadlock)
Bilateral – multilateral – plurilateral agreements
→ We have thousands of other treaties on international trade, investment and financing
→ Image of the spaghetti bowl: you have a bowl with thousands of spaghettis mixed and mingled into each
other and that is what IEL is => every spaghetti is a different agreement
o By now, the spaghetti bowl really is full and the number is constantly increasing
o And this is in part because of the crisis at the WTO… MS of this organization start to renegotiate
by themselves new types of deal
▪ BUT chicken and the egg discussion about that… it is because of the crisis or is the crisis
is a result of that?
▪ Opinion of the prof: is a bit a mix of both… they are two factors that influence each other
in a negative way
→ Bilateral agreement: country 1 concluded an agreement with country B
o Typical for the area of investments
→ Multilateral treaties: they are concluded between an extreme large number of countries
o Ex: GATT
o This creates a true network of legal relationships
→ Plurilateral agreements: everything that is in between the bilateral and the multilateral treaties
o It is a treaty with a handful number of participants, it is not global BUT still more than 2
→ Ex: all the treaty that the EU is negotiating https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-
regions/negotiations-and-agreements/
Types of agreements
So we can find multiple types of agreements
Trade agreement
→ Part of the GATT, we have many PTA’s (Preferred Trade Agreement)
o They are bilateral/plurilateral agreement in which countries agree to give themselves a better
treatment (Ex: the EU)
International investment agreement
→ They are called BITs (bilateral investment treaty) => these are the newer agreement
→ BUT we can also find mixed agreement which combine trade and investment (the EU loves those)
International monetary system
→ The source of international finance are way more limited and they only form a small part
→ The key concept here is the IMF (the international monetary fund)
A first introduction to the WTO …“30 years of the Marrakesh Agreement” (https://youtu.be/pOL0X90FgF4)
3
, International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
Current Hot topic in IEL
1°: THE hot topic now is that WTO (DSB) crisis and beyond
→ This crisis is currently at its peak with the Trump administration (raising of tariff and collecting of taxes if
the goods are coming from another country)
o BUT this will likely lead to reaction from other countries… we will go into an action-reaction
story and enter into an economic welfare (the word is a bit strong BUT this is what will happen)
o However, the whole idea of the WTO was to avoid this
→ Starting since Doha 2001 SO this is not new
→ The trade conflict between the US and China is not new as well
o The core of the US-China trade conflict already started under the Obama administration
→ And we are in a global economy, and it is because of that that one crisis can very easily become a global
crisis
IEL is very much linked with international political and international trade economics
→ We will try to stay away from taking bold position on international politics or economics in this class
→ We are a lawyer and if we reason about that, we should use argument from the legal discipline first (so
we can look is something is done in respect with the applicable rules)
2°: Legitimacy of ISDS (Investment state dispute settlement)
→ This is very debated by the academic field: while ISDS provides a valuable avenue for resolving
investment disputes, its legitimacy is questioned due to concerns over transparency, accountability, and
its potential to undermine state sovereignty and the right to regulate.
→ This tension is at the heart of ongoing academic and policy debates, driving reforms aimed at better
balancing these competing interests.
3°: Sustainability (incl. climate change)
→ It is always a difficult topic for every course
→ It is completely insane to get a bottle of wine for 2,5€ from southern America to Europe => it does not
make sense to have a boat for that, for something that you could have in Europe
o Transportation is a very important element in pollution
→ IEL contributed to the global economy as we know it today and so some people say that to some extent
IEL is part of the environmental issue that we are facing right now
4
International Economic Law
B001751A
2024-2025
Anna Sonnenschein
, Introduction
International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
GATT: one of the main sources of law for this course
→ We can bring it to the exam (it is the only thing we can bring!!!)
EXAM! 100% written exam with 3 types of questions
→ Theory, cases (applying the theory in practice) and essay type question (only 1 with our personal opinion
fueled by the inside gained during the classes)
→ What to study: only what is said during the classes
International economic law is quite uneasy to define
→ It is not a sharply defined area of law, and we will find different names and titles for this course
o US: international trade law
o World trade law, international trade regulation
1°: law => It is a law course that relates to economic activities
2°: Why economics? To indicate that it is about the entire economy and not just about trade
→ Trade si the core BUT over the year it became clear that there are other things that are important as well
→ + investment => it goes hand in hand with trade
o Investment = setting up a business
→ + financing these economic activities
3°: international/ global dimension
→ This aspect is twofold:
o It is about economic activities in an international way: it is about cross border economic
activities
▪ From a legal perspective, we get the attention that if a situation si cross border, the
situation becomes more complex since we have two jurisdictions that come into play
o BUT it is also about international law
▪ That means that the main sources and matters of this course are those of international
law, international public law (so often, in other universities, the class is through by
public law professors)
▪ BUT we will look at it through the perspective of the businesses: what is the impact for
business and for the contract concluded by the businesses
International economic law is treaty law => the main sources are treaties since it is an international public law
→ A treaty is an agreement between states
→ Usually when we think about business law, we will think about only national laws and maybe rules of
private international law BUT here we have a look at rules of public international law that impose duties
on the states and the citizens, businesses of these states
This course has many links with other courses
→ Economic law (about the national law)
→ International Business Transactions (about a cross-border business from a private law perspective)
→ International Commercial Arbitration (about private law and procedural law)
→ Public international law (the basis for this course)
→ EU Trade Policy (this is the closest with this class and might have some overlaps) => it is zooming on the
EU position on the whole story of the international economic law
2
, International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
Relevant treaties
=> Agreements on international economic activity
GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Almost 80 years old now)
→ “the rules”: it is the backbone of ITL
WTO = World Trade Organisation
→ It is the organization that governs the rules of the GATT
→ It is an organization that is in crisis and a growing number of people are asking what will happen with
that organization (It is still functioning BUT in crisis)
→ One of its strengths is its dispute settlement system
o It has been for a long time and has been a wonderful feature of international law and seen as
the most efficient dispute settlement system in the entire world
o BUT again, the WTO is in crisis and its dispute settlement system even more (situation of
deadlock)
Bilateral – multilateral – plurilateral agreements
→ We have thousands of other treaties on international trade, investment and financing
→ Image of the spaghetti bowl: you have a bowl with thousands of spaghettis mixed and mingled into each
other and that is what IEL is => every spaghetti is a different agreement
o By now, the spaghetti bowl really is full and the number is constantly increasing
o And this is in part because of the crisis at the WTO… MS of this organization start to renegotiate
by themselves new types of deal
▪ BUT chicken and the egg discussion about that… it is because of the crisis or is the crisis
is a result of that?
▪ Opinion of the prof: is a bit a mix of both… they are two factors that influence each other
in a negative way
→ Bilateral agreement: country 1 concluded an agreement with country B
o Typical for the area of investments
→ Multilateral treaties: they are concluded between an extreme large number of countries
o Ex: GATT
o This creates a true network of legal relationships
→ Plurilateral agreements: everything that is in between the bilateral and the multilateral treaties
o It is a treaty with a handful number of participants, it is not global BUT still more than 2
→ Ex: all the treaty that the EU is negotiating https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-
regions/negotiations-and-agreements/
Types of agreements
So we can find multiple types of agreements
Trade agreement
→ Part of the GATT, we have many PTA’s (Preferred Trade Agreement)
o They are bilateral/plurilateral agreement in which countries agree to give themselves a better
treatment (Ex: the EU)
International investment agreement
→ They are called BITs (bilateral investment treaty) => these are the newer agreement
→ BUT we can also find mixed agreement which combine trade and investment (the EU loves those)
International monetary system
→ The source of international finance are way more limited and they only form a small part
→ The key concept here is the IMF (the international monetary fund)
A first introduction to the WTO …“30 years of the Marrakesh Agreement” (https://youtu.be/pOL0X90FgF4)
3
, International economic law | Anna Sonnenschein
Current Hot topic in IEL
1°: THE hot topic now is that WTO (DSB) crisis and beyond
→ This crisis is currently at its peak with the Trump administration (raising of tariff and collecting of taxes if
the goods are coming from another country)
o BUT this will likely lead to reaction from other countries… we will go into an action-reaction
story and enter into an economic welfare (the word is a bit strong BUT this is what will happen)
o However, the whole idea of the WTO was to avoid this
→ Starting since Doha 2001 SO this is not new
→ The trade conflict between the US and China is not new as well
o The core of the US-China trade conflict already started under the Obama administration
→ And we are in a global economy, and it is because of that that one crisis can very easily become a global
crisis
IEL is very much linked with international political and international trade economics
→ We will try to stay away from taking bold position on international politics or economics in this class
→ We are a lawyer and if we reason about that, we should use argument from the legal discipline first (so
we can look is something is done in respect with the applicable rules)
2°: Legitimacy of ISDS (Investment state dispute settlement)
→ This is very debated by the academic field: while ISDS provides a valuable avenue for resolving
investment disputes, its legitimacy is questioned due to concerns over transparency, accountability, and
its potential to undermine state sovereignty and the right to regulate.
→ This tension is at the heart of ongoing academic and policy debates, driving reforms aimed at better
balancing these competing interests.
3°: Sustainability (incl. climate change)
→ It is always a difficult topic for every course
→ It is completely insane to get a bottle of wine for 2,5€ from southern America to Europe => it does not
make sense to have a boat for that, for something that you could have in Europe
o Transportation is a very important element in pollution
→ IEL contributed to the global economy as we know it today and so some people say that to some extent
IEL is part of the environmental issue that we are facing right now
4
