sessions 7 + 8. international economic law and its relevance for media.

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.
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 

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).

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).

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).