A Call for Papers for the 25th Anniversary Conference of the World Trade Review

April 23/24 2026

Geneva, WTO/Graduate Institute

The World Trade Review (WTR) celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2026. As the journal started its journey in Geneva (in the WTO’s Centre William Rappard), the WTR Board together with Cambridge University Press have decided to send a strong signal and organize the anniversary conference at the shores of Lake Geneva.

The creation of the WTO represented not only an ambitious systemic evolution from the GATT period but also developed into a corner stone of the post Cold War order. This so-called “liberal trading order” has survived past periods of challenges and showed resilience. But today’s challenges do raise important questions that scholars need to reflect upon and that will shape the agenda of the field of trade policy in the decades ahead.

The anniversary conference, we hope, will serve to help to evaluate past contributions and define that future agenda. The role of WTR in promoting the study of world trade makes the 25th anniversary of this journal the ideal time to reflect on another round of fundamental challenges to the international trade order.

Call for papers

For the anniversary conference, we invite scholars in law, political science, and economics to take stock of whether the multilateral trading system has lived up to its promise.

What have market-access concessions or general principles such as MFN, reciprocity, and non-discrimination contributed to the stability and openness of global trade and investment? How have dispute settlement and transparency mechanisms influenced compliance and cooperation among states? Where did institutions fall short? As the WTO enters a period of uncertainty, the conference asks what may be lost if its core functions cease to operate and what its record reveals about the enduring value of multilateral trade governance.

The conference will feature contributions from junior and senior researchers. Papers may be problem-driven or theory-driven. In total, the program will include 12 original papers. In order to allow for as many participants as possible to join the conference from all corners of the world, the sessions will be offered hybrid. There is some funding available for supporting the travel and accommodation costs of younger scholars who lack sufficient travel funds.

Scholars interested in writing a paper for the anniversary conference should submit an abstract by January 10, 2026. If papers are already available as draft texts, authors are encouraged to send these along.

Paper proposals should be submitted to manfred.elsig@unibe.ch

Subject to peer review, the accepted papers will be part of a special anniversary edition.

Anniversary conference

The anniversary conference has two parts:

• On the afternoon of April 23, 2026, we organize a public event at the World Trade Organisation. Robert Staiger, incoming WTO chief economist will deliver a lecture which will be followed by a panel discussion including Ambassadors and scholars. The topic of the lecture and the round table will be announced later in 2025.
• On April 24, 2026, we organize a scholarly conference in collaboration with the Geneva Graduate Institute. The main topic of the conference focuses on the liberal trade order, its challenges and opportunities.

Timeline

10 January 2026: Submission deadline for proposals (abstract)
25 January 2026: Selection is made and authors are informed
08 April 2026: Draft papers due
23-24 April 2026: Conference
30 June 2026: Submission of final papers for special issue

The WTR Organization Committee

Wolfgang Alschner
Cédric Dupont
Manfred Elsig
Joseph Francois
Robert Koopman
Sooyeon Kim
Patrick Low
Miriam Manchin
Rebecca O’Rourke
Stephanie Rickard
Christian Volpe
Weihuan Zhou