This chapter examines non-forcible measures adopted by the UN and similar inter-governmental organisations in terms of their legality (constitutionality and conformity to international law), legitimacy and effectiveness. It focuses on the Article 41 of the UN Charter, a provision that empowers the Security Council to adopt sanctions against states, although it has further developed this power to promulgate targeted sanctions against individuals and other non-state actors (NSAs). The chapter analyses the impact of general sanctions against states, such as Southern Rhodesia, Iraq, Serbia and Libya, especially their impact on the human rights of the population. It discusses the applicability of human rights norms to the UN. The Security Council has favoured targeted sanctions against individual leaders, regime elites and NSAs, such as terrorists held responsible for threats to peace but these have raised human rights concerns, and have led to litigation before various national, regional and international courts and bodies.

This chapter examines the relationship between preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and the multilateral trading system represented by the WTO. It explores the historical context of PTAs, their proliferation, economic effects, and WTO surveillance. The chapter analyses the legal texts governing PTAs, including GATT Article XXIV, GATS Article V, and the Enabling Clause, and discusses controversies surrounding their interpretation. It also delves into regulatory issues within PTAs, such as rules of origin and provisions extending beyond WTO rules. Furthermore, the chapter addresses WTO dispute settlement cases involving PTAs and the evolving landscape of trade agreements, including digital economy and critical minerals agreements. Finally, it considers the systemic effects of PTAs on the multilateral trading system, highlighting both positive and discriminatory aspects.

Forcible sanctions, involving the use of force organised or authorised by the UN, regional or defence organisations, raise issues of compatibility with the rules governing the use of force in international relations, which are found in the UN Charter and customary law. This chapter considers the role of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) in implementing and upholding those rules, necessitating an analysis of Article 2 and Chapters VII and VIII of the UN Charter, and the constituent treaties of security organisations. It discusses different military responses undertaken by IGOs, ranging from observation and peacekeeping, to peace enforcement and war-fighting, in terms of legality and practice. The chapter also considers whether there is an emerging duty upon the UN (and possibly other IGOs) to take action in response to the commission of core international crimes, embodied in the idea of a Responsibility to Protect and practiced in Libya in 2011.

This chapter explores the complexities of discrimination in international trade law, a core principle that mandates equal treatment of foreign and domestic goods, services, and intellectual property. Despite its significance, the definition of discrimination remains contested, with debates focusing on intent versus impact and the comparability of products. The chapter analyses these issues, examining key legal texts like the GATT, GATS, and TRIPS agreements, and the evolving jurisprudence of GATT panels and the WTO Appellate Body. It highlights the shifts in interpreting ‘discrimination’, including the move from considering both ‘aim and effect’ to focusing primarily on the effect of trade measures. The chapter concludes by discussing the challenges in reaching a clear, agreed-upon standard for discrimination and the implications for international trade.

This chapter examines the relationship between trade and development. Centring the heterogeneity of developing states within the World Trade Organization (WTO), the chapter briefly analyses some of the trade law interests that are most important to these different types of developing country. It then turns to a question: how has international trade law accommodated the needs of different types of developing country through special and differential treatment?  The chapter contends that the rules of the global economic order and the WTO in relation to trade were developed and are being implemented in the shadow of a fiercely contested geopolitical power struggle. Despite the flexibilities in the WTO, developing and small island developing states’ trade interests are significantly marginalised in the rules’ implementation. Without fundamentally reimagining the inequities in our international trade regime, mere ‘window dressing’ or adoption of new rules of trade would only further marginalise the trade interests of the developing countries and SIDS in a non-inclusive way.

Although there are controversies about the UN Security Council making binding general international law, this should not disguise the fact that the UN General Assembly has been hugely influential in shaping international law since 1948. This chapter explores institutional lawmaking in the modern era, looking in detail at the impact of General Assembly Resolutions on outer space in the 1960s and the WHO's Health Regulations. Both the General Assembly Resolutions and the WHO's Health Regulations are shown to be international laws in their own right and that they are paradigmatic of UN lawmaking more generally. The chapter examines whether inter-governmental organisations, in exercising their autonomous competence, have the potential to produce laws in their own right, irrespective of whether their output feeds into the traditional sources, such as treaties, custom or general principles, of international law.

This chapter explores the key relationship between the inter-governmental organisation (IGO) and its member states. It examines the basic relationship between the United Nations (UN) and states in terms of membership through admissions, withdrawal, expulsion, suspension, and representation. The chapter provides case studies, including the pursuit of Palestinian membership and the consequences of the break-up of states for membership, showing how the rules on membership are at the same time rudimentary and difficult to adhere to. It shows that membership of an IGO no longer guarantees full sovereign equality of member states, and that with qualified majority voting and weighted voting, sovereign equality becomes more and more qualified. The chapter also explores how the obligation to pay, when combined with a scale of assessments that requires powerful states to pay more, produces considerable tensions within the UN and other IGOs, sometimes in the form of a refusal to pay.

This chapter examines the international rules governing SOEs, including those in the World Trade Organization and various free trade agreements (FTAs), focusing on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The chapter analyses the specific provisions of CPTPP Chapter 17, which sets forth a comprehensive set of disciplines on SOEs, including definitions of SOEs, commercial activities, commercial considerations, designated monopolies, and non-commercial assistance. It also discusses the concepts of adverse effect and injury caused by SOEs, as well as exceptions to the disciplines. Finally, the chapter offers observations on the CPTPP’s rules, including the definition of SOEs, the scope of commercial activities, and the extraterritorial effect of FTAs.

This chapter explores the relationship between international trade and sustainable development, with a particular focus on climate change. It traces the evolution of the multilateral trading system from its origins in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the present day, highlighting the shift from a focus on trade liberalisation to a broader commitment to sustainable development. The chapter examines how the World Trade Organization has grappled with integrating environmental concerns into its framework, including the development of ‘greening’ jurisprudence, institutions, and rules. It proposes a reform agenda to further align the trading system with global sustainability goals, emphasising the need for alignment with climate change commitments, harmonised sustainability standards, reformed subsidy approaches, governance and institutional reforms, and a focus on equity and justice.

The discovery of the Arthasastra of Kautilya in 1905, with its subsequent full publication and translation, triggered a re-evaluation by Indians of the political sophistication of their past, which involved a nationalist reclamation. Importantly, that included ancient Indian interpolity law. This chapter engages two periods of Indian historiography of the Indian interpolity past. After the First World War Indian writers addressed the advances of Indian interpolity law, with emphasis on Kautilya, the Mahabharata and the Code of Manu. Writers focusing primarily on international law saw the Indian past as particularly advanced by comparison to the failures of the West. A second wave after 1947 made similar moves but from the perspective of an India consciously taking its place on the world stage, and after Partition. The chapter identifies the tendency towards Indian interpolity past by writers focusing on international law, while those engaged in broader historical writing filled in a broader spectrum, such as realist depictions particularly of Kautilya but also of or other Indian writers or practice.

A primary purpose of this chapter is not to give a comprehensive overview on a process of accepting modern Western international law in Japan from the middle of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, but to add fresh perspectives to analyse the process. The central focus here is on a vigorously debated issue at that time among the officials of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japanese politicians and Western envoys stationed in Japan: the issue of the territorial sea and the inland sea of Japan, especially the breadth of the territorial sea. Two main cases, the Proclamations of Neutrality at the time of the 1870 Franco-German (Prussian) War and a collision case between the Chishima, a Japanese warship, and the Ravenna, a British post boat, in the Inland Sea of Japan in 1892 , are analysed in detail from this perspective.

This chapter analyses security exceptions in international trade law, focusing on their interpretation and application within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It examines the evolving nature of national security concerns, particularly in cybersecurity, and how these concerns intersect with trade regulations. The chapter discusses the justiciability of security exceptions, the level of deference accorded to states in defining their security interests, and the challenges posed by the expansion of security concerns beyond traditional military domains. It also evaluates the adequacy of existing WTO and PTA frameworks in addressing contemporary security issues, suggesting that further innovations may be necessary to balance trade liberalisation with national security imperatives in the digital age.

This chapter examines the growing trend towards integration of gender considerations into international trade agreements. It analyses the rationale behind this trend, exploring both rights-based and economic efficiency-based arguments for promoting gender equality through trade. The chapter discusses various approaches to integrating gender provisions, including mainstreaming within functional chapters, as well as dedicated chapters, and highlights the variations in focus areas in particular agreements, ranging from economic empowerment to social concerns. It further categorises the roles of women addressed in these agreements, such as employees, decision-makers, mothers, and business stakeholders. The analysis reveals gaps in addressing critical issues like the informal sector and digital inclusion, and underscores the importance of enforceable provisions for effective implementation.

I examine the complexities of maritime connections between China and South Asia created by the entry of multiple states and non-state actors in the Indian Ocean between the thirteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Divided into three chronological sections, the chapter first focuses on private traders, shippers, coastal polities, and European colonial enterprises in shaping and regulating commercial activity, diplomatic encounters, and their involvement in cross-regional interaction, exchange and conflict. The networks of traders that criss-crossed the ocean is highlighted. The next section analyses the impact of the seven voyages of Zheng He in the early fifteenth century on restructuring maritime interactions between China and South Asia. The final section centres on two entrepreneurs, one Chinese and one Indian, who utilised British colonial networks to advance their ventures and contributed to the expansion of maritime exchange. The chapter provides new insights into the nature of interactions between China and South Asia when there were no norms or regulations beyond specific coastal polities and regions.

This chapter examines the legal framework of contingent protection measures in international trade, focusing on anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, and safeguards. It outlines the relevant WTO rules, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and explores the justifications for these measures. These trade remedies, while protectionist, address concerns of unfair trade practices and market disruption. The chapter also addresses the challenges posed by non-market economies and the evolving role of subsidies. Finally, it discusses the economic, political, and geopolitical rationales for contingent protection, highlighting the tension between fairness and efficiency in international trade.

This chapter examines the role of tariffs and quotas in international trade law, focusing on their regulation within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization. While often associated with free trade, these legal frameworks primarily discipline rather than prohibit protectionism, favouring tariffs as the more acceptable instrument. The chapter traces the evolution of tariffs as the preferred trade barrier, contrasting them with the general prohibition on quotas. It also discusses the complexities of tariff application, including classification, valuation, and origin determination. Finally, it considers the future of tariffs and quotas, and the challenges of achieving full trade liberalisation without regulatory harmonisation to prevent regulatory arbitrage.