• Inactive for Year: 2025/26

• Module Leader(s): Professor Ben Farrand
• Lecturer: Dr Sylvia de Mars

• Owning School: Newcastle Law School
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

The aim of this course is to create an engaging, topically relevant and reflective consideration of contemporary challenges in regulating the trade of goods and services between states, taking an interdisciplinary study to the subject that goes beyond the laws passed to consider the international relations and political economy dimensions of trade, and how they serve to structure and delimit the boundaries of trade ‘law’. By doing so, this module goes beyond studying ‘just’ the WTO order, to placing the WTO in a broader context that considers the role of other institutions such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Health Organization and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in shaping international trade, the role of the EU’s Common Commercial Policy in its engagement with trading partners, and the rise of the multilateral regional agreements, such as the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The key objectives of this module are as follows:

1. To familiarise students with the ideas, interests and institutions that have served to create the current international trade system under the WTO
2. To provide students with technical knowledge and understanding of the functions of the WTO, its regulatory capacities and the functions of the Appellate Body;
3. To facilitate a critical reflection on the position of the WTO in current debates over the effective regulation of trade between states;
4. To explore the interactions between the WTO and other institutions such as the WHO, UNCTAD and WIPO;
5. To look at case studies on the move to regionalism and plurilateralism outside of the WTO framework;
6. To consider specific and topical examples of emerging issues in international trade, including for example current debates over trade and public health;

Outline Of Syllabus

The proposed outline of the syllabus is as follows, with the proviso that case studies will change each year dependent upon current issues, controversies and developments.


1) The history of trade governance

2) The Institutions of World Trade – from GATT to the WTO

3) The functions of the WTO, MFNs and Preferential Trade Agreements

4) The key principles of international trade law – from national treatment to trade in services

5) Emerging challenges to the WTO order – populism, protectionism and pessimism

6) Regionalism case study (example European Union Internal Market Integration)

7) Regionalism case study (example European Union Common Commercial Policy)

8) Regionalism case study (example ASEAN and CPTPP)

9) Current issue case studies: may include (but is not limited to) trade and the environment, trade and labour standards, trade and public procurement

10) Current issue case studies II: may include (but is not limited to) trade and the environment, trade and labour standards, trade and public procurement

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

In terms of the specific teaching methods, workshops have been chosen as the most suitable method of teaching for this content, which combined an element of semi-structured lecturing with student interaction and activities. This is facilitated by the structured research and reading activities, where in advance of classes, students read materials provided before each session, discussing challenges in the international trade system related to the topic of the session. Students will then use this reading to develop a position in advance of the weekly student-led activity in each workshop. In addition to these formal classes, there will be a number of drop-in/surgery hours, where students can ask questions regarding course content, specific readings, or to prepare for the assessment for the module. Directed research and reading will be prepared for each session, which allows students to develop greater insight into the areas of legal research discussed in each activity, with an additional reading list provided on Canvas as further readings or a library list, which can then be used by students drafting their research proposal during their assessment preparation and completion.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative assessment is an MCQ undertaken by students on Canvas during the term, as an open-book test of their knowledge and understanding of substantive content covered during the first half of the module. The feedback provided in this assessment will directly prepare students for their final assessed exam for the module.

The final summative component is a two-hour exam, which will have two components. The first is a series of problem questions on dimensions of WTO law specifically, ensuring that students understand and can apply WTO law, and the second component is a series of essay questions about the international trade system more generally. Students must answer one question from the first component, and one from the second component, for a total of two questions. Both components are equally weighted.

Reading Lists

• LAW8452's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• LAW8452's Timetable