This chapter examines the legal and institutional frameworks governing international trade and communication in the ancient Near East, focusing on the third to first millennia BC. It highlights the uneven distribution of textual evidence across time and regions, with the richest sources coming from the Old Assyrian trade network in Anatolia during the early second millennium. Through treaties, letters and legal documents, the chapter explores how merchants and messengers operated across borders, the protections they received and the obligations they faced. It discusses the role of commercial treaties, trade partnerships and diplomatic exchanges, emphasising the integration of trade with political and legal systems. The chapter also addresses the regulation of foreign merchants residing abroad, the risks of long-distance trade and the mechanisms for dispute resolution. By analysing key sites such as Ebla, Mari, Kanesh and Ugarit, it provides a comprehensive view of how ancient states facilitated and controlled international commerce, laying early foundations for international trade law.

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.

This chapter examines the historical development of economic thought concerning international trade, tracing its evolution from early barter systems to contemporary theories. It explores mercantilism, classical theories of absolute and comparative advantage by Smith and Ricardo, and neoclassical economics’ focus on consumer preferences. The chapter delves into imperfect competition, introducing concepts like monopolistic power and product differentiation, which led to ‘New Trade Theory’. It also discusses efficiency maximisation, non-discrimination principles like MFN and national treatment, trade in services, and international vertical integration. The chapter concludes by emphasising the significance of reciprocity in trade relations and the role of the WTO in promoting international cooperation and reducing trade barriers.

This chapter discusses the history and evolution of international intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, focusing on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. It examines the justifications for and debates surrounding the extension of developed country-style IPRs to developing nations, as well as the TRIPS provisions themselves. The chapter also addresses the conflicts between TRIPS and other international regimes, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the significant public health concerns raised by TRIPS, particularly regarding access to essential medicines. Finally, it concludes by analysing the distributive impact of TRIPS and the challenges posed by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

This introduction to The Cambridge Companion to World Trade Law introduces the book’s purpose and structure. The volume is intended to be an authoritative and accessible guide to the field, appealing to both legal specialists and those with no specialist knowledge of trade law. It is written by experts and provides a compact discussion of the perspectives, enduring issues, and emergent challenges in the field. The introduction also discusses the current context of world trade, highlighting the divisions in the world following decades of growth and the challenges posed by globalisation. It sets the stage for the chapters that follow.

This chapter examines the political economy of international trade policy, exploring the evolution of the international trading system from the GATT to the WTO. It analyses the fault lines between free trade and fair trade and winners and losers, and the role of labour market policies in addressing transition costs. It also discusses the challenges facing the WTO, including institutional dysfunction and an expanding mandate. It proposes potential solutions, such as plurilateral agreements and improved institutional arrangements, while emphasising the need for collaboration with other international agencies. The chapter concludes by stressing the urgency of recovering the aspirations of the post-war international order to address current global challenges.

This chapter discusses the relationship between WTO law and other public international law (PIL), focusing on the interpretation of WTO law through the lens of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). It examines how WTO dispute settlement bodies have approached non-WTO law, particularly in the context of treaty interpretation and potential conflicts between legal regimes. The chapter argues that while the VCLT provides a framework for interpretation, it has limitations in addressing conflicts between different agreements, as illustrated by the interaction between the Paris Agreement and the WTO. The authors contend that legislative solutions within the WTO are necessary to address these conflicts and ensure the WTO’s continued relevance in the face of global challenges like climate change.

National security concerns have long shaped international relations, with economic interdependence traditionally seen as fostering stability. However, recent geopolitical shifts have challenged this assumption. The strategic rivalry, particularly between the US and China, has raised the stakes of international competition and new forms of economic warfare. Historically committed to multilateralism, the EU faces pressures to reassess its approach due to an increasing use of economic coercion by other states. Emerging powers, particularly BRICS, are also redefining their roles in the global order, employing economic tools to counter Western hegemony. As unilateralism rises and the effectiveness of multilateral institutions like the WTO is questioned, a “new geo-economic order” appears to be emerging. This Chapter creates the basis for the normative and evaluative questions of this book by exploring how major economic players navigate national security concerns in an increasingly fragmented trade landscape.

This chapter examines the paradoxical success of the most demanding form of market integration, the Single Market established in 1992, which is based on the federalisation of numerous pieces of legislation. It is surprising that twelve European states, among the richest in the world, felt the need to link their markets so closely, even though they could have perfectly well continued alone. The creation of a unified market gradually became the central aspect of European cooperation between 1919 (when Keynes first aired his ideas on this topic) and 1957. The countermodel of the British-style free trade area (FTA) emerged as a major alternative but it failed. A genuine Single Market was established in the late 1980s. It had three striking features. First, it was put in place quickly between 1987 and 1992, enabling the unprecedented opening of the Union’s internal borders. Second, liberalisation was accompanied by enhanced regulation, in accordance with the oxymoron ‘freer market, more rules’, including a surprising rise of federal competition policy. Third, this move was opposed by several neoliberal figures, such as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the late 1980s.

Chapter 3 moves to the global level, exploring the history of technology control and its historical links to geopolitics. It begins by considering control of technology in the context of the Cold War and technology as being explicitly considered a security issue in terms of the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. It covers the CoCom technology restrictions imposed by the US, and Soviet Union attempts to gain access to critical technologies through Comecon, before considering how the approach to technology changed substantially with the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the belief in the triumph of the liberal international order and globalism as reflected by the World Trade Organization and ‘free trade’. It then explores the multifaceted crises impacting upon this conviction in the benefits and resilience of the global trade system, the increased economic conflict between the US and China as a rising technological power, and a move from multilateralism in a ‘unipolar’ system to increased nationalism and protectionism in a ‘multipolar’ system, and what this meant for the EU’s sense of insecurity and vulnerability in the context of geopolitical reordering.