International Trade Regulation

Page updated:
January 10, 2008

International trade regulation image

A comprehensive, regularly-updated statement of the law and practice of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multilateral arrangements governing international trade.

by Edmond McGovern; foreword by Peter Sutherland.

Loose-leaf binder, 258x190 mm, ISBN 978-0-9508463-6-1; ISSN 1357-2695. Published since 1995; updated every six months.

Table of contents

International Trade Regulation aims to be:

comprehensive: 1100 pages of analysis cover the WTO rules - GATT, GATS and TRIPS - as well as those of other multilateral arrangements such as the Harmonized System Convention, and CITES. The analysis is linked to over 80 source documents, the texts of the WTO agreements, on the web. These include GATT and the remaining Codes and other international materials as diverse as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (see the full list).

accessible: to cope with the complex nature of the WTO, where one set of facts can have a number of legal implications, the work aims at a high degree of integration, in particular through the use of frequent cross-references and a uniform style. Direct web links are provided for many documents cited in the text, including all WTO dispute settlement reports.

regularly updated: almost from the start of the WTO both the Appellate Body and individual panels have been busy resolving disputes between Members and in doing so have produced a steady stream of legal interpretations of the Agreements on points major and minor. Additional agreements have been concluded in several sectors and the Doha Development Round will no doubt modify and extend the existing rules. To keep track of these changes updates to the text are issued every six months.

Judge for yourself

So that you can make your own estimation of the usefulness of International Trade Regulation we are making available on this site a substantial part of Chapter 1, as updated to January 2008. This chapter examines the structure and powers of the institutions of the WTO, the position of its members and the sources and principles of WTO law. These form the foundations on which rests the analysis of WTO rules carried out in later chapters.

What reviewers have said

"... this is the single most comprehensive compilation of multilateral trade agreements, the GATT/WTO jurisprudence coupled with the author's understanding and interpretation of how the WTO edifice works in practice.
... this is a book for practitioners of any sort: University professors and students, lawyers and their clients, national delegations and international secretariats. In short, everybody with an interest in international trade regulation (in world integration, more generally) must possess this unique volume."
Journal of World Trade

"McGovern's `International Trade Regulation' is a most useful, most convincing and most impressive work on WTO/GATT law. Anyone working in the field of international trade law and practice is well advised to consult McGovern's work on any legal question concerning this complex and important field of international law."
German Yearbook of International Law

"[C]e commentaire rendra les plus grands services à ceux qui souhaiteront prendre connaissance du nouveau droit des échanges internationaux."
Annuaire Français de Droit International

International Trade Regulation was previously published as a hardback volume (which also included sections on US and EC law). This is what reviewers had to say about it:

"This is the first major book to systematically deal with GATT and related trade issues since the completion of the Tokyo Round Negotiations in 1979. Indeed, the wealth of detail and the accuracy of information is astonishing for a book of this scope, published so soon after the completion of that negotiation. The diligence, mastery of detail, and prodigious effort of the author is manifest."
Prof. John Jackson, Common Market Law Review

"All concerned with the puzzle of GATT will be eager to obtain this excellent work.. This is the ideal bedside book of the international trade expert."
Journal of World Trade Law

"This excellent, clearly written and presented account of the legal bases of trade ..." Development Policy Review

"Par la masse de documents qu'il rassemble et l'éffort de systématisation qui l'anime, cet ouvrage est le plus considérable qui ait paru sur le sujet depuis l'achèvement de la négociation de Tokyo en 1979. C'ést à coup sûr le meilleur guide pour éviter au lecteur de se perdre dans le dédale de la reglementation du commerce international."
Rev. générale de droit international public

"Completed just before the Uruguay Round began, the book remains a timely text because of its encyclopedic examination of the structure and policies and differing philosophies of international trade regulation."
American Journal of International Law

Invitation

We welcome suggestions for amendments or improvements to International Trade Regulation.

You can send your comments to the Globefield Press or to Mr McGovern.

Top of page