Reconciling Environment and Trade: Second Edition

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.

Review:

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR FIRST EDITION: Reconciling Environment and Trade is clearly a superior work in the field of environment and trade, and one of the more interesting works in international law. . . . The book is highly recommended for professors, researchers and practitioners interested in the recent debates related to international law, environment and trade. By bringing together a considerable amount of new research, as well as introducing new approaches to key issues, the book proves to be both thought-provoking and encouraging to readers and practitioners in this field. . . . The editors have put issues and disputes that we see and read about every day into a context that both professionals and ordinary people can not only understand, but relate to. This takes experience and formidable understanding, and is a rare talent, indeed. Reconciling Environment and Trade makes it clear . . . that international environmental law is not dying, but changing-and changing rapidly. With this book, one gets the feeling that international law is reinventing itself, thanks in large part to the ability of the editors to frame and describe the issues in a new light. - Glen Paoletto, Book Review, International Review for Environmental Strategies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2001): 186-88. Reconciling Environment and Trade is a timely and important treatment of the complex and critical issues surrounding the relationships between international trade law and international environmental law. The editors are leading figures in their fields, and their deep and broad knowledge is evident throughout the work. Somewhere in this giant book, the contributors impressively address almost every conceivable issue that the trade/environment clashes raise. . . - Joseph F.C. DiMento, Books of Note, Environment (March 2003): 36. . . . [M]uch needed guidance and insight on the significant issues alive in environmental-international law. - Environmental Law, Vol. 31, Issue 4 (2001): 1108. This book exemplifies the clash between trade and the environment. . . . [U]ers of this volume will be well prepared to practically face the problems presented by the global nature of the challenge. - Edward J. Bander, Bimonthly Review of Law Books (July-August 2001): 19. Notable book, Internatinal Law & Trade Perspective, Vol. 27, No. 7 (July 2001): 19.