Asian International Economic Law Network (AIELN)
Asian International Economic Law Network (AIELN) III Seoul Conference 2013
Call for Papers
A. General Information
The AIELN III Conference will be held on 18(Thurs) and 19(Fri) July, 2013 at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. The theme of the Conference is: “The WTO at 20 and the Future of the International Law on Trade, Investment and Finance”.
The year 2014 marks the last year of 20 year experience of WTO implementation. It will be a good idea to assess the past 20 year experiences one year earlier, and forecast the future of the WTO system in line with the future development of international law on trade, investment and finance. Papers presented and discussions made at 2013 AIELN III could be published until the end of 2014, in time for the 20th anniversary of WTO.
The Call for Papers for this Conference concerns two different types of papers: (1) those for the kick-off panel discussion on the main theme (Panel 1) and the wrap-up panel discussion on the main theme (Panel 5), and (2) those for three thematic Panels on trade, investment and finance (Panels 2, 3 and 4).
The Organizing Committee seeks to encourage the participation of scholars, whether established or young scholars, practitioners, or graduate students by inviting submissions of paper proposals for speakers in all Panels.
Speakers will be selected through a competitive blind-assessment process without any prejudice to factors such as seniority, race, gender, religious background and geographical location. Papers of the speakers will be selected by the Selection Committee. Note should be taken that presentation shall be made only in English.
All speakers (except invited guests and sponsors) at the Conference must be members of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). A non-member may respond to the Call for Papers but if selected, will be expected to join the Society promptly. For instruction as to how to sign up for SIEL, please refer to http://www.sielnet.org/ Default.aspx?pageId=98112.
Please note that the standard rate of SIEL membership is £85@year, but there are discounts available for students, academics and government officials and those who work for NGOs. Additional discounts are available for people from developing countries. Also, please note that benefits for SIEL members include discounted rates for SIEL meetings, discounts on subscription to several renowned journals, discounted rates on all or some titles from Cambridge University Press, Cameron May publishers, Hart Publishing, among others. For the details of the benefits of SIEL membership, please refer to http://www.sielnet.org/Default.aspx?pageId=106037.
B. Call for papers for Panels 1 and 5
Concepts and objectives
These Panels will discuss general issues of the multilateralism under the WTO system in the global economic governance. These Panels will be devoted to overviewing what is the WTO system in its 20 year experiences and identifying problems and challenges we are facing in governing the global trading system. While human wisdom indicates that multilateral liberalism and governance is always of global concern, the decades-old multilateral institution of the GATT/ WTO is facing serious challenges in the effective governance of a globalizing trading system and regional as well as bilateral agreements and institutions. How to respond to these challenges and how to reform WTO jurisprudence and process to coordinate global and regional mechanisms have become a compelling subject for whole-scale discussions and systemic analysis.
In this light, papers for Panel 1 should seek to overview 20 years of WTO governance and implementation, discuss the reasons for the current impasse of multilateral negotiations at Geneva, and identify any cross-cutting challenges and problems of WTO mechanism. Grand-scale comprehensive analyses are preferred in this Panel to any issue-specific analyses. Also, historic analyses and analyses of the present state will be preferred to any future-oriented discussions that are not based on such analyses.
On the other hand, Panel 5 should be focused on the future of the multilateral trading system. Finding solutions to the problems and challenges we are facing in governing multilateral trade and how to reform the institutional and legal frameworks of the WTO are the two central themes in this concluding Panel. Any suggestions based on creative and problem-solving ideas and constructive policy proposals for improving global trade governance will be much welcomed. Improvement of global trade governance may take the form of reforming the existing multilateral institutions, establishing new ones, or better coordinating existing multilateral, regional and national institutions.
C. Call for papers for Panels 2, 3 and 4
The themes of these Panels are fixed as follows:
Panel 2 – Multilateral Governance and Jurisprudence of Trade
Panel 3 – Multilateral Governance and Jurisprudence of Investment
Panel 4 – Multilateral Governance and Jurisprudence of Finance
Panel 2 - Concept and objective:
With the stalled Doha negotiation, multilateral trade governance seems to be in a stalemate. Filling this governance gap, a growing number of FTAs are concluded, but they are bringing about an associate issue of the “spaghetti bowl” effect. Asia is no exception, hosting many generations of “noodle bowls”. Dispute settlement functions of the WTO have been truly praised by many commentators as an example of success in international legal society. It is also true however that this success is tainted by a substantial number of non-implementation and/or inadequate implementation cases of the rulings and recommendations of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). There are growing demands for transparency and public awareness of the WTO and its works. Still, many commentators express their views that there have not been satisfactory reforms to respond to these requests. In addition, the trade governance system is struggling with the enigmatic issues to link or engage with other value-enhancing concepts including development, environment, competition, and regionalism.
What needs to be done to reinvigorate the Doha negotiation? What should be done to improve the DSP performances and transparency? How can we coordinate trade and non-trade value-enhancing systems? Papers focusing on a specific issue or problem or a specific region (in particular, Asia) will be preferred. An indicative list of possible issues or problems is as follows:
- Decision Making at the WTO and Organizational Structure of the WTO System
- Negotiations at the WTO (including evaluation of the DDA Round)
- Dispute Settlements at the WTO: How has it performed?
- WTO Rules and Case Law in International Law Context
- Transparency and Public Awareness of the WTO and its Work
- National Implementation of WTO Rules and Cases
- Future of the Trade Governance System in linkage with Development, Environment, Competition, and Regionalism Issues: Managing the Challenges Ahead
Panel 3 – Multilateral Governance and Jurisprudence of Investment
Concept and objective
Accumulation of investor-state arbitration is causing issues of conflicting arbitral awards, forum shopping, procedural fairness, etc., that need coordination or governance at the multilateral level. Although there are model BITs authored by major investing countries, investment provisions under BITs and FTAs have shown substantial variations. Do we have to continue to live with the memories of failed attempts of establishing multilateral rules for investment (MAI in 1998, WTO Geneva Ministerial of 2004) and to rely on a prevailing means of bilateral and regional governance of investment through BITs and investment chapters of FTAs? Or, should we make a new attempt for multilateral governance?
If the latter is the path that we have to keep trying (given lessons from WTO’s 20 year experience), how fast should we make steps from now on, and how far? Will there eventually be the possibility of a multilateral investment agreement (or institution)? If so, what steps should we take to coordinate or control the existing BITs and investment chapters of FTAs?
Both reflections of historical development and prognosis of future governance structure will be welcome. Also, both global and regional analyses, in particular Asia-focused ones, will be welcome.
Panel 4 – Multilateral Governance and Jurisprudence of Finance
Concept and objective
The contemporary global financial crisis and EURO crisis in particular is posing a fundamental question: Is it OK with the multilateral financial governance mechanism centered on IMF, one of the three pillars of decades-old Bretton Woods system? What went wrong with the existing multilateral financial institutions and rules? What role should a new financial framework or initiative play in solving the current financial crisis and in preventing future ones? How can such new frameworks for governing finance as G20 and Miyazawa Initiative in East and Southeast Asia contribute to reduce ineffectiveness in governing finance and to prevent crisis?
Both global and region-specific analyses, in particular those focusing on Asia, will be welcome. Also, both problem-finding and problem-solving analyses will be welcome.
D. Instructions for paper submitters
An applicant is required to submit his or her paper proposal of 500 to 800 words to: wmchoi91@naver.com in MS WORD file.
The submission deadline is 15 January 2013 (23:00 Seoul standard time, or GMT 14:00).
The result will be announced to all the applicants by e-mail by 28 February 2013.
The following content needs to be included in the submission:
1. Title of the paper with keywords (up to 5 words).
2. Paper proposal as an attached file. (1 and 2 should be in the same file)
3. Name of applicant.
4. Affiliation of applicant.
5. Mailing address for contact person.
6. E-mail address of applicant.
7. Telephone number (including country code) for contact person.
8. The name (number) of the Panel to which the proposal is submitted. (3 through 8 should be in the text of the e-mail. Please note that they should not be in the paper proposal in supra 2.)
9. CV and major publications and presentations of applicant in an attached file (in either MS WORD or PDF file).
Those selected as speakers are required to submit his or her full papers by 30 June 2013. The time allocated to each speaker is 15 minutes. Speakers can submit a full paper which may require more than 15 minutes for presentation. However, even in this case, the number of words of the full paper should be no more than 6,000 words including citations.
The result of the Conference is planned to be published in a book. The speakers may be advised to write a longer paper for publication. They will be informed of the instruction for publication after the Conference.
E. Accommodation and Facilities:
The Conference will be held at the Ewha Womans Univ. Campus. The campus is located at the convenient downtown area of Seoul and is generally considered as one of the most beautiful campuses in Korea. (Homepage: http://www.ewha.ac.kr & http://law.ewha.ac.kr).
Hosting institutions and sponsors will afford for renting conference rooms, PCs and projectors; hiring assistants and volunteers; and providing luncheon and official dinner meals. Hotels or in-campus guest houses at discounted rates will be recommended for registered participants. A possibility of fund-raising for renowned invited speakers and others will be pursued.
More detailed schedule and information will be provided at early 2013.
