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Authors

Donald McRae

Abstract

The development of specialized areas of international investment law and international trade law has increasingly called into question the relationship between these areas and general international law. The concept of a “self-contained regime” has often been invoked as a way of understanding these relationships but on examination this turns out not to be as analytically useful as hoped. In both international investment law and international trade law dispute settlement bodies have sought to explain the intersection between general international law and the specific rules of investment law and trade law. Nonetheless there are questions about the legitimacy of dispute settlement, particularly in the area of investment law, and there are concerns about the way in which the WTO Appellate Body has invoked principles of international law. On the one hand public international law is seen to offer too little in the interpretative process of WTO dispute settlement and on the other hand it is claimed to be able to do too much. The problems that arise are linked to the generic question of the relationship between treaties and general international law to which much greater attention should be given.

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