Syllabus

PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITIES

University of South Carolina Law School (USC)

University of Indonesia (UI)

Gadjah Mada University (UGM)

TEACHING FACULTY

Prof. David Linnan

Prof. Erman Rajagukguk

COVERAGE

This international trade and economic law course is intended chiefly as an introduction to two distinct but related areas in international economic law. The first involves the basics of the GATT/WTO law as the core of the multilateral trading system. The second involves the concept of free trade agreements (FTAs) which the WTO treaty permits as a matter of economic integration. Beyond basic principles, the treatment of GATT/WTO law is tied to the on-going Doha round which was focused on a negotiating deadline of end 2006, but now probably will remain frozen for 3-4 years, during which time the emphasis will shift to the FTA approach. The treatment of FTAs is tied to the increasing number of bilateral trade and investment agreements between ASEAN countries and the United States, including the recently concluded Singapore-US FTA, the Malaysia-US FTA currently under active negotiation, and the contemplated Indonesia-US FTA for which exploratory talks have only just begun (also against the background of ASEAN's own AFTA concept, including China longer term). The treatment of FTAs in particular will include coverage of general international law principles such as foreign investment protection, because FTAs differ importantly from the GATT/WTO approach by incorporating investment protections. Coverage of shared areas such as services liberalization, agricultural trade questions, as well as import surge protection and rules of origin (ROO) in the textile context post-Multifibre Agreement phase out of quotas includes both GATT/WTO and FTA approaches, with attention to similar issues in the NAFTA context as example.

MEETING TIMES & PLACES

The course is scheduled to meet regularly 08:00-10:10 Columbia time Mondays in South Carolina. We shall meet in Columbia August 23 & 28 in Room 334 and thereafter September 11-November 27 in the Videoconferencing Room on the second floor of the Law Library. Class will meet starting September 11 in Jakarta at the Program Pascasarjana Fakultas Hukum UI videoconferencing facility at UI-Salemba and in Yogyakarta at the UGM Fakultas Hukum videoconferencing facility in UGM-Bulak Sumur. Classes will meet local time in Indonesia 19:00-21:00 through October 29, and then 20:00-22:00 through November 27. We shall schedule 2-3 floating classes Saturday mornings in Jakarta in the second half of October and in November. US students are not obligated to attend such classes except that they should participate in the Singapore-US FTA class taught by Prof. Austin Pulle of the Singapore Management University.

TEXT, CONTACTS AND APPROACH

Our basic text is Raj Bahala, International Trade Law: Theory and Practice (Second Edition) (Lexis 2001). You can get the text of the relevant GATT/WTO or similar provisions normally on the World Trade Organization (WTO) website (http://www.wto.org). Reading assignments from the Bahala book are posted on the course page (http://www.lfip.org/laws665f06) under the course materials link. They may also be distributed via the course LISTSERV. Where possible I shall try to include references via link on the course materials page to where you would find the relevant GATT/WTO, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or similar provisions. Based on past experience, we shall normally distribute class powerpoints via the LISTSERV in advance of class as well as posting them on the website (since students seem to prefer commenting the presentations in taking their class notes). Class preparation will include watching in advance certain streaming video lectures to cover doctrinal law, so that we have more time in class for discussion and to do problems so that you see how the law works in practice. We shall also be making a digital recording of presentations to put on the website in streaming form. We hope to get them up within 10-14 days following class meetings. We shall separately produce some DVD streaming materials for Indonesia students.

This course is mostly a specialized international economic law course, but is offered without prerequisites knowing that some students will have prior knowledge and training in public international law, while others may not. There will be a few introductory sessions in this course with some general public international law content. However, students who have not already taken an introductory public international law course will be referred to streaming video of a few lectures from another such introductory course early in the semester(see in particular Unit 1 International Law Backgrounder video at http://www.lfip.org/laws783fall04/stream.htm). Following a few of these introductory lectures should provide you with enough doctrine on technical issues like treaty interpretation, sources of law, etc. for our course. Similarly, we shall speak about relevant economic doctrine in a few introductory sessions, but you will be referred to an economist's streaming video lectures on the basics of international economics doctrine so that you understand enough about international trade theory to make sense of the law.

This course is taught locally at USC and via videoconferencing also to the UI and UGM university sites in Indonesia (where the Indonesian participants will largely be law graduate students, mid-level government and private sector representatives). The Indonesian universities start their semesters in early September 2006, so that the USC class will meet alone first for a few weeks before we pick up our Indonesian participants. The world is in the middle stages of a periodic WTO negotiating round referred to as the "Doha round," which has reached a temporary impass. For the next 3-4 years most people think that very little will happen in the Doha round, with the result that active negotiations switch to the FTA track. Thus, we shall take the time to explore the on-going Doha round from the vantage point of both an industrialized (US) and a developing (Indonesia) country, then look at what it means to switch to the FTA track. We also will provide for considerable time in class for student presentations or projects from both perspectives, so that class participants work through how the issues often look different to different countries. Students are encouraged to carry on their own dialogue outside of class via e-mailing the LISTSERV so that you better understand how your foreign counterparts see matters.

We have a course LISTSERV (laws665@listserv.sc.edu) to keep in touch generally, and for discussions plus asking questions outside of class. You must join the course LISTSERV to fully participate in this class, since we will use it like a bulletin board for announcements about reading assignments, etc. while students and faculty should use it to ask questions and carry on discussions outside our videoconferenced classes. For those of you unfamiliar with the LISTSERV concept, a LISTSERV is simply a system in which e-mail communications are sent to a single address and then distributed to all LISTSERV subscribers (e.g., all class members). Please consult the LISTSERV information page at http://www.sc.edu/ars/listserv.html for general directions, and click on the course webpage class administration link (http://www.lfip.org/laws665f06/admin.htm) for directions about how to subscribe to the class LISTSERV.

ASSESSMENT

Grading in the US will be based primarily on either (i) a research paper, or (ii) a final exam. USC students may choose either assessment option. With the instructor's permission such research paper may also be structured to satisfy the USC Law School's graduation writing requirement. Students wishing to write such a research paper should talk early and often with the instructor, since you will be required to choose a topic in consultation with the instructor, produce an outline, followed by a first draft and then a final version of the paper. Note that you must confer with the instructor at least three times in the process: to chose a topic cooperatively, to review your writing outline together, and then for comments between your first draft and the final paper version.

We shall also have in-class presentations of problems and projects from students, so that your grade will also reflect those on the margin (basically, up or down a half letter graced in +/- terms). We invite you to do your own videoconferenced powerpoint presentations followed by discussion further to work problems, etc. in the name of perfecting your presentation skills just like you would interviewing and negotiating in a clinics course. Your presentations will all be done in groups, and the group work will include an element of self-assessment within the groups. We shall try to divide up the formal problems early in the semester to allow students so desiring either to write their longer graduation writing requirement research papers as a deeper exploration of certain aspects of their presentation problem, or a shorter (non-graduation writing requirement) research paper on aspects of their chosen problem.