The body of rules for transnational trade in the 21st century derives from medieval commercial laws called the lex mercatoria
and lex maritima
— respectively, "the law for merchants on land" and "the law for merchants on sea." Modern trade law (extending beyond bilateral treaties) began shortly after the Second World War
, with the negotiation of a multilateral treaty to deal with trade in goods: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
International Trade Law is an aggregate of legal rules of “international legislation” and new lex mercatoria, regulating relations in international trade. “International legislation” – international treaties and acts of international intergovernmental organizations regulating relations in international trade. lex mercatoria - "the law for merchants on land". Alok Narayan defines "lex mercatoria" as "any law relating to businesses" which was criticised by Professor Julius Stone. and lex maritima - "the law for merchants on sea. Alok in his recent article criticised this definition to be "too narrow" and "merely-creative". Professor Dodd and Professor Malcolm Shaw of Leeds University supported this proposition.
World Trade Organization
In 1995, the World Trade Organization
, a formal international organization to regulate trade, was established. It is the most important development in the history of international trade law.
The purposes and structure of the organization is governed by the Agreement Establishing The World Trade Organization
, also known as the "Marrakesh Agreement
". It does not specify the actual rules that govern international trade in specific areas. These are found in separate treaties, annexed to the Marrakesh Agreement.
Scope of WTO :
(a) provide framework for administration and implementation of agreements; (b) forum for further negotiations; (c) trade policy review mechanism;and (d) promote greater coherence among members economics policies
Principles of the WTO:
(a) principle of non-discrimination (most-favoured-nation treatment obligation and the national treatment obligation) (b) market access (reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade) (c) balancing trade liberalisation and other societal interests (d) harmonisation of national regulation (TRIPS agreement, TBT agreement, SPS agreement)