Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Conference: BIICL WTO Conference 2018

On June 8, 2018, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law will host its 2018 WTO Conference. Here's the idea:
As in the past, this year's WTO Conference will explore emerging ideas and developments in international trade law. It will bring together leading academics and practitioners to discuss the implications of recent global developments. 2018 has seen great challenges and debates concerning the validity of WTO law and its very foundation. This year's BIICL WTO Conference will debate some of the most important current academic and practical issues with topics ranging from Brexit to the active undermining of the international legal trade order by some of its founding members. New topics will also be debated such as trade and climate change. The founding of the WTO in 1994 and, before it, the establishment of the GATT 1947 have provided the legal framework for the rules-based international trading system. The BIICL WTO Conference takes place at a critical crossroad where this system may either be affirmed and strengthened or undermined by a resurgence of economic nationalism and new barriers to trade. This conference is of high practical value as the UK prepares to leave the European Union. As such legal practitioners will have to take WTO rules more directly into account when advising international companies and actors.