Tuesday 24 November 2015

session 9. recent developments in global copyright law.

As previously announced, session 9 will be taken over by a guest lecturer. I am truly delighted to give the floor to Dr Emanuel Meyer and look forward to interesting discussions on recent developments in global copyright law, offered by an expert with a background in the fields of both policy-making and international negotiations.

If you think that some of your fellow students may be interested in this topic, do spread the word.

Dr Emanuel Meyer is Head of Legal Services 'Copyright and neighbouring rights' at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI). Subsequent to his studies at the University of Zurich and the Franklin Pierce Law Center (Concord, New Hampshire) and prior to joining IPI in 2005, Emanuel was a practicing lawyer in Zurich.
His profession of choice would have rather been a guitar player but lack of musicality had proven to be a decisive obstacle.

Optional reading:
Swiss initiatives for copyright revision: AGUR12
Copyright in the digital age: Highway or dead-end?

Tuesday 17 November 2015

session 8. wto law (part two).

After having gotten the basic idea of the institutional set-up of the WTO and its functions, session 8 will go into the substance of the WTO law. We will firstly look at the underlying principles of non-discrimination (most-favoured-nation treatment and national treatment obligations) and how they are regulated under the GATT (for goods) and the GATS (for services) respectively. We will then focus on those rules of the WTO that are most relevant to telecom and media products and services or were specifically designed to address them.

Reading materials
Roy, Audiovisual Services in the Doha Round

Optional: 
Van den Bossche, The Law and Policy of the WTO, Chapter 4
(this is an abridged version of the chapter; while it is still too long, it could serve well as a reference text in case more clarification is needed on the non-discrimination principles under GATT and GATS)

Here are the slides of session 8.

Friday 6 November 2015

session 7. the law and policy of the world trade organization. an introduction.

Sessions 7 and 8 focus on the law and policy of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The purpose of the first session of this pair will be to introduce you to the institution of the WTO and its unique characteristics that set it apart from other international organizations. We will also talk about the basic rationales for free trade, about the sweeping process of economic globalization and the need for state co-operation and global rule-setting. While the topic is complex and it does come along with its own and often specific vocabulary, it is critical to understand that a great deal of our domestic policy- and rule-making (also in the field of media) is dependent upon these developments at the global level.

Reading materials 
Van den Bossche, The Law and Policy of the WTO, Chapter 1
 (the analysis of economic globalization and its pros and cons will be useful also for session no 8, as well as partially for the interactive session on cultural diversity protection)

Here are all WTO legal texts.
We will pay particular attention to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO (the WTO Agreement), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Optional 
Here are some additional basic reference texts about the WTO:
Understanding the WTO
10 Things the WTO Can Do


Here are some cases exemplifying the theory of comparative advantage (source: Wikipedia).

Here are the slides for session 7.