Download or read book Food Safety and the WTO The Interplay of Culture Science and Technology written by Marsha Echols and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2001-11-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's international trade regime explicitly rejects cultural perceptions of what is safe to eat, overturning millennia of tradition. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) enshrines "science" as the arbiter in resolving disputes involving this vital human need. This mandate, however, is under attack from many quarters. Critics cite environmental and ethical concerns, unpredictably changing technology, taste, food preferences, local culture, adequacy of governmental implementation of WTO standards, and the reliability of scientific opinion. A basic conflict has crystallized: food as culture versus food as commerce. The WTO/SPS approach is increasingly challenged for its balance in favor of economic considerations, and for its visible undermining of unique cultural identities. This important book explores the relationship between the SPS Agreement, food traditions, science, and technology. It deliberately confronts those trade experts who refuse to allow other social sciences to influence their economics-based trade theory. The author ably investigates the local perception of food and food safety from the anthropological and historical points of view, the evolution of food production technologies, and the medicinal, proscriptive (taboo) and security aspects of food that continue to prevail in nearly all cultures today. She succeeds in demonstrating that, no matter how strong the faith in science and economics, it is unwise to flagrantly dismiss the deeply rooted beliefs of billions of people, a huge majority of the world's population. The Beef Hormones case; the remaining sovereignty related to food safety measures; the increasing significance of "appropriate levels of protection" and "the precautionary principle"; the redefinition of "food hazard" to include production processes as well as food itself; genetically modified seeds and food products; the concept of "risk" in the science-based context of the Codex Alimentarius - these are among the issues and topics covered in depth. The author concludes that, although quick "legal" resolutions of trade disputes about what people should or should not eat might provide a "win" for open trade, support for the entire structure and rationale of the WTO is undermined unless (at the least) some flexibility of interpretation is introduced into the WTO Dispute Resolution System in order to recognize the weight and validity of public opinion. Food safety is arguably the most important issue affecting international commerce today, urgently demanding enlightened discussion and action based on global consensus. This well-researched and thoughtful contribution offers significant clarification and perspective to policymakers, lawyers, academics and others engaged in this critical human drama in progress on the world stage.
Download or read book The Cultural Dimension of Human Rights written by Ana Vrdoljak and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intersections between culture and human rights have engaged some of the most heated and controversial debates across international law and theory. As understandings of culture have evolved in recent decades to encompass culture as ways of life, there has been a shift in emphasis from national cultures to cultural diversity within and across states. This has entailed a push to more fully articulate cultural rights within human rights law. This volume analyses a range of responses by international law, and particularly human rights law, to some of the thorniest, perennial, and sometimes violent confrontations fuelled by culture in relations between individuals, groups and the state in international society. Across the different issues tackled, the contributions are tied by one unifying thread - that culture is understood, protected and promoted not only for its physical manifestations. Rather, it is the relationship of culture to people, individually or in groups, and the diversity of these relationships which is being protected and promoted; hence, the fundamental overlap between culture and human rights.
Download or read book Conflicting Philosophies and International Trade Law written by Michael Burkard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reveals how conflicting worldviews are at the root of public controversies on policy and trade issues. It highlights the particularly controversial disputes at the level of the World Trade Organization in the case of regulating beef-hormones and GMOs, aiming to show how negotiators of international agreements, members of dispute settlement bodies, and policy makers in general could have recourse to concepts of other disciplines such as epistemology and philosophy in order to address deadlocked legal disputes. Ultimately, the book is a manifesto for independent and critical research.
Download or read book Sustainable Development in International Law Making and Trade written by Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-25 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book provides an accessible insight into how the concept of sustainable development can be made operational through its translation into legal terms. Understood as a multidimensional legal principle, sustainable development facilitates coherent international law making. Using this notion as an analytical lens on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the book considers the unresolved question of what a sustainable and coherent agricultural trade agreement could look like.
Download or read book Cultural Products and the World Trade Organization written by Tania Voon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-06-28 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debate about trade and culture has a long history, but the application of WTO rules to cultural products such as films, radio, and books remains one of the most divisive issues in the organization. After assessing the economic and social arguments for treating cultural products differently from things like steel or wheat, this 2007 book explains how the vastly different views of WTO members in earlier negotiations led to an outcome that is disappointing for all. It goes on to provide a comprehensive evaluation of possible solutions, including evolution of the law through WTO dispute settlement, an agreement outside the WTO, and reforms to improve the balance between trade liberalization and cultural policy objectives.
Download or read book Food Law and Policy written by Jacob E. Gersen and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 903 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food Law and Policy surveys the elements of modern food law. It broadens the coverage of traditional food and drug law topics of safety, marketing, and nutrition, and includes law governing environment, international trade, and other legal aspects of the modern food system. The result is the first casebook that provides a comprehensive treatment of food law as a unique discipline. Key Features: Draws together cases with other regulatory materials such as rulemaking documents and agency requests for proposals for grant funding. Focuses on federal law and includes discussion of innovations in food law happening at the municipal, state and federal level. Covers the latest developments in food law.
Download or read book Ethical and Socially Responsible Investment written by Dominic Broadhurt and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2005-05-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dieses neue Nachschlagewerk präsentiert mehr als 500 Informationsquellen zum Thema ethisch und sozial verantwortliche Investitionen. Es wendet sich an Informationsspezialisten, die im Bereich Wirtschaftsinformationen für den privaten wie öffentlichen Sektor tätig sind. Der Titel ist für alle, die mit Investitionsmanagement betraut sind oder relevante Informationen zu diesem Gebiet benötigen, eine unschätzbare Quelle aktueller Daten, handelt es sich doch um das umfangreichste Nachschlagewerk, das bislang zu diesem Thema veröffentlicht wurde. Das Buch deckt alle zentralen Bereiche innerhalb der sozial verantwortlichen Investitionen (SRI) ab: Umwelt, Menschenrechte, Arbeitsbedingungen, Tierschutz, Rüstungsfragen, Lebensmittelsicherheit, sexuelle Ausbeutung, Gesundheit, Sicherheit und Tabak. Die Informationsquellen zu jedem dieser Aspekte wurden einzeln ausgesucht, gründlich hinsichtlich der behandelten Themen analysiert und bewertet sowie mit vollständigen Kontaktangaben versehen. Das Spektrum der Quellen reicht von Büchern und Zeitschriften zu Websites und professionellen Einrichtungen. Der konkurrenzlose und benutzerfreundlich gestaltete Titel bietet allen, die im Bereich ethisch und sozial verantwortlicher Investitionen tätig sind, eine Auswahl der besten einschlägigen Informationsquellen.
Download or read book Regulating Health and Environmental Risks Under WTO Law written by Lukasz Gruszczynski and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central problem that this book tackles is whether the system established by the SPS Agreement can address the existing and potential challenges of a new interdependent world. It provides a critical examination of the substantive provisions of the agreement and corresponding case law.
Download or read book Research Handbook on Environment Health and the WTO written by Geert van Calster and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÔThis edited collection brings together an impressive array of authors from the world of international trade, the environment and public health. Each of them is eminently well-placed to bring their own particular expertise to bear on the issue at hand, and to do so in a knowledgeable and stimulating manner. This Research Handbook is a must for anyone interested in these overlapping fields of law and policy whether as a basis for learning or as a resource for further research.Õ Ð Mary Footer, University of Nottingham School of Law, UK ÔThis fantastic collection of essays explores the multiple intersections between trade and environment in the WTO. The contributions by leading scholars are theoretically engaged whilst practical in their focus. It is a Òmust readÓ for those concerned to ensure that trade liberalisation does not stand in the way of sustainable development, including urgently needed action to mitigate the risks and consequences of climate change.Õ Ð Joanne Scott, University College London, UK ÔGeert Van Calster and Denise PrŽvost have managed to induce virtually all the great experts on health, environment and WTO law to contribute to their Research Handbook on these subjects. The result is undoubtedly an excellent volume that should adorn the bookcase of any and all interested in the important problem of the relation between international rule-making and regulatory autonomy of states in this area of international economic law.Õ Ð Pieter Jan Kuijper, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands This Handbook provides state-of-the-art analysis by leading authors on the links between the international trade regime and health and environment concerns Ð concerns that make up an increasing proportion of WTO dispute settlement. Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO surveys fields as diverse as climate change mitigation, non-communicable diseases, nanotechnology and public health care. The volume brings to the fore the debates and complexities surrounding these issues and their implications for the international trading system. The Handbook begins in Part I with a survey of general issues that sets a context for the more specific sectorial studies. Part II considers the most pressing issues within health regulation and trade law, whilst Part III is devoted to environmental regulation and its interface with trade law. Part IV looks specifically at aspects of the dispute settlement process and in particular standard of review, and the book concludes in Part V with a consideration of the impact of trade measures on the health and environment regimes of emerging economies. This comprehensive yet concise Handbook will appeal to academics and researchers in international trade law and environmental law, as well as trade law practitioners.
Download or read book Agriculture and the WTO written by Fiona Smith and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an insightful book of ideas offering an alternative conceptualisation of the problems of international agricultural trade, which are seen as polycentric and so must be managed rather than resolved. It demonstrates that where there is convergence without genuine agreement on the meaning no specific resolution can be achieved. The author is to be commended for offering a valuable springboard for further reflection on the management of the problems of international agricultural trade. Joseph McMahon, University College Dublin, Ireland International agricultural trade regulation remains problematic despite the creation of the WTO and a specific Agreement on Agriculture in 1995. Fiona Smith challenges this orthodoxy and presents a new conceptual method by which the problem of international agricultural trade in the WTO can be understood. Attempts to revise the rules in the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade talks have repeatedly stalled as negotiators grapple with what is perceived to be the problem of international agricultural trade. Issues such as how best to address the contemporary challenges to market liberalisation whilst preserving the environment, difficulties of biofuels, development, human rights and the demands of the changing nature of global governance are all examined in this timely book. Challenging convention and introducing new concepts, Agriculture and the WTO will strongly appeal to academics working in the fields of international agricultural trade, international relations, international economic law, agriculture law and policy. It will also be warmly welcomed by policymakers and graduate students with a special interest in international agricultural trade.
Download or read book Risk Perception Culture and Legal Change written by Matteo Ferrari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-23 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the reasons behind the different responses of the legal systems of Europe, Japan and the USA in coping with BSE, one of the major food safety crises in recent years. Making reference to the most recent advances on risk perception that cognitive and social sciences, such as legal anthropology and sociology of law, have experimented with, Risk Perception, Culture, and Legal Change examines the role that culture plays in moulding the process of legal change. Attention is focused on the regulative frameworks implemented to guarantee the safety of the food chain against the BSE menace and on the liability responses sketched to compensate the victims of mad cow disease, showing how both these elements have been influenced by the cultural context within which they are situated.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Food in Asia written by Cecilia Leong-Salobir and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-02-25 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throwing new light on how colonisation and globalization have affected the food practices of different communities in Asia, the Routledge Handbook of Food in Asia explores the changes and variations in the region’s dishes, meals and ways of eating. By demonstrating the different methodologies and theoretical approaches employed by scholars, the contributions discuss everyday food practices in Asian cultures and provide a fascinating coverage of less common phenomenon, such as the practice of wood eating and the evolution of pufferfish eating in Japan. In doing so, the handbook not only covers a wide geographical area, including Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, India, China, South Korea and Malaysia, but also examines the Asian diasporic communities in Canada, the United States and Australia through five key themes: Food, Identity and Diasporic Communities Food Rites and Rituals Food and the Media Food and Health Food and State Matters. Interdisciplinary in nature, this handbook is a useful reference guide for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology and world history, in addition to food history, cultural studies and Asian studies in general.
Download or read book The Development of World Trade Organization Law written by Gregory Messenger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As one of the pillars of economic globalisation, the WTO is at the heart of a complex network of rules and institutions. This volume analyses WTO law in light of the influence of globalised actors, identifying causal language as an indispensible component in understanding the development of WTO law.
Download or read book La jurisprudence de l OMC The Case Law of the WTO 1998 1 written by Brigitte Stern and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-04-01 with total page 579 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for volume 1: "[...] The authors have taken advantage of the retrospection inherent in this volume to provide perspective that may not be available in the instant commentaries. Thus, the bilingual volume will be useful both to readers needing a quick summary of a WTO decision and to specialists seeking to trace through the development of the rapidly evolving WTO jurisprudence." - Steve Charnovitz, in: The American Journal of International Law, Volume 98
Download or read book Geographical Indications for Food Products written by Marsha A. Echols and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the first edition of this indispensable volume nearly a decade ago, great changes have taken place in the national and international legal and regulatory frameworks for geographical indications (GIs) systems for food products. Rather than limitation (designed to prevent the use of ‘culture’ for protectionist purposes), the preponderance now favours recognition of GIs, with enforcement directed at protection. While the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) remain the multilateral legal benchmarks for GIs, the field has been assertively entered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with the 2015 Geneva Act (which adds GIs to the Lisbon Agreement), national laws in key jurisdictions, and bilateral and proposed mega-regional trade agreements with provisions on food vastly more detailed than the relevant TRIPS articles. Still notable for its thorough exploration of the meaning of the TRIPS commitments, the second edition brings to its commentary and guidance a new perspective that takes the changed conditions fully into account. With no sacrifice of depth, the author covers a wide range of issues such as the following: • estimates of the value added by origin and tradition; • GIs as a tool for national and local development; • growing importance of the concepts heirloom, heritage, and local; • minimum standards of protection under TRIPS; • administration and policing of product characteristics; • procedures followed by the European Union, India, Japan and others; • applicable laws concerning labelling and unfair business practices; • traditional communal nature of GIs versus private property characterization; • significance of the WTO’s Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade; • administrative and procedural rules at WTO, regional, and national levels; • the role of the Codex Alimentarius; and • the role of the TRIPS Council. Given that experience and research have revealed the great financial and cultural value of GIs, this thoroughly updated detailed analysis and interpretation of current trends in food product regulation worldwide is of crucial importance to an adequate understanding of the trade rules that apply to the recognition, protection, and enforcement of GIs and competing names. It is sure to be of great value to those concerned with this specialized field, whether practitioners, food producers and traders, jurists, officials, policymakers, or academics.
Download or read book Reconciling Environment and Trade written by Edith Brown Weiss and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume focuses on five cases, all of which remain cornerstone trade-environment cases of the WTO. The subject matter of these cases reflects five basic issues in the clash between trade and the environment: public health, air pollution/ozone depletion, food safety, destruction of endangered species, and biosafety. These five issues surface dramatically in international disputes over tobacco, reformulated gasoline, beef growth hormones, commercial fishing methods, and genetically modified organisms. In the second edition of this book, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder joins the original editors to update and contextualize the five case studies in new introductions to each section. These introductions provide an overview of developments since the first edition, including subsequent related cases. The second edition also includes updated bibliographic materials. In their penetrating analyses of these cases and their vast implications, the authors take into account the entire disciplines of both trade law and environmental law, noting especially the points of friction between the multilateral instruments in each field and the developing jurisprudence of the WTO Dispute Settlement with regard to the exceptions specified in Article XX of the GATT. The articulated standpoints of all parties governments and NGOs on both sides of the controversy are probed for agendas, whether stated or unstated. No one involved in international trade or environmental activism can afford to ignore this vital publication. The information it provides (on WTO jurisprudence, on current and pending environmental initiatives, on the science behind the disputes), no less than the fresh and convincing analysis it holds forth, make it an essential tool for understanding some of the most crucial issues in international law today.
Download or read book Genes Trade and Regulation written by Thomas Bernauer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural (or "green") biotechnology is a source of growing tensions in the global trading system, particularly between the United States and the European Union. Genetically modified food faces an uncertain future. The technology behind it might revolutionize food production around the world. Or it might follow the example of nuclear energy, which declined from a symbol of socioeconomic progress to become one of the most unpopular and uneconomical innovations in history. This book provides novel and thought-provoking insights into the fundamental policy issues involved in agricultural biotechnology. Thomas Bernauer explains global regulatory polarization and trade conflict in this area. He then evaluates cooperative and unilateral policy tools for coping with trade tensions. Arguing that the tools used thus far have been and will continue to be ineffective, he concludes that the risk of a full-blown trade conflict is high and may lead to reduced investment and the decline of the technology. Bernauer concludes with suggestions for policy reforms to halt this trajectory--recommendations that strike a sensible balance between public-safety concerns and private economic freedom--so that food biotechnology is given a fair chance to prove its environmental, health, humanitarian, and economic benefits. This book will equip companies, farmers, regulators, NGOs, academics, students, and the interested public--including both advocates and critics of green biotechnology--with a deeper understanding of the political, economic, and societal factors shaping the future of one of the most revolutionary technologies of our times.
