NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR

HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE LAW OF THE WORLD TRADE

ORGANIZATION

SYNOPSIS

Under the supervision and guidance of:

Mr. Bipin Kumar

Assistance Professor,

Faculty of Law

01/08/2015

Submitted By

Deepti Gautam
 LLM 2015-2016

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between human rights law and international trade law has been a
point of discussion for many years. Since the institutionalization of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1994, the World Trade Organization has become
the driver for freer trade. However, critics of the organization have complained that
free trade had become inconsistent with fair trade, and that the WTO had in fact
prevented states from fulfilling their human rights obligations.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
WTO and Human rights both are very isolated with each other. The human rights
regime protects rights, the WTO protects interests. The main aim of the scholar is
to relate the human rights law and the WTO. Yet the WTO has been accused of
preventing countries from setting their own health standards, of dangerously
eroding citizens’ interests in favor of commercial interests, and of being a veritable
nightmare for certain sectors of humanity. These accusations usually end with a
call to the WTO to recognize the primacy of the human rights over international
trade law. Such calls have not been heeded, and one might wonder whether they
have even been heard.

In this project the scholar will explore why calls for the WTO to take human rights
on board have not met with success. To set this exploration in context, it start with
the some specific areas of conflict between human rights norms and WTO-related
policies. Then, exploring the impact of WTO law on State capacity to protect,
promote and fulfill the human rights in the light of case study.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To analyze the position of Human Rights in International Trade.
 To explain theories on the role of Human Rights in the WTO Agreements.
 To explore the impact of WTO law on State capacity to protect, promote and
fulfill the human right to health policy.
 To understand WTO Dispute Settlement and Human Rights.
 To recommend ways to apply Human Rights in the WTO.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Q 1. What is meant by Human Rights?
Q 2. Is the imposition of trade sanction for human rights abuses compatible
with WTO law?
Q 3. What role to be attributed to human rights conditionality in trade
agreements?
Q 4. To what extent should the WTO dispute settlement system take into
account human rights issues?
Q 5. Does the mainstreaming approach, according to which all UN activities
have to be informed by human rights principle extend beyond UN law and
involve also WTO law?
Q 6. Should Article XX of the General Agreement to interpret more
extensively in order to take the human rights question better into account?
Q 7. Should international human rights be re-interpreted in view of the needs
of a well-functioning international trade system?
HYPOTHESIS

World Trade Organization rules are routinely linked to the inability of nations to
make meaningful progress in sharpening human rights protections.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The approach taken in the dissertation will be doctrinal rather than empirical, as
the nature of the research questions posed and analyzed and the hypothesis set out
to be either proved or disproved call for objective evaluation based on legislations,
judicial precedents and policies rather than statistical or demographic knowledge.
Further, the main sources upon which reliance will be placed will be primary
sources i.e. treaties and bare act and secondary sources i.e. journal articles,
academic books, and internet sources.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERISATION

1. Introduction
2. Research Methodology
3. Shared Features of International Human Rights and Trade Regimes
The chapter would aim to briefly summarize what all laws for human rights
adopted with in international arena and WTO Agreements.
4. Conflicts between Human Rights and World Trade Organization Law
The chapter would aim to take specific areas of conflicts between Human
rights and WTO law with help of some land mark cases.
5. WTO Dispute Settlement and Human Rights
The following chapter will examine the process how WTO dispute
settlement body considers the human rights as interpreting their laws.
6. Theories on the role of Human Rights in the WTO Agreement
 This chapter explains the theoretical developments and the implicit
incorporation theory of human rights in the WTO Agreements.
7. The Generalized System of Preference and the Appellate Body Ruling in
EC-Tariff Preferences
This chapter discusses the EC- Tariff Preferences and influence of the ruling
incorporation of the human rights into the EC Generalized System of
Preferences.
8. Conclusion and Suggestions
The project is concluded with the chapter with the suggestion and
recommendation to improve the human rights issue in the World Trade
Organization Agreement.

LITERATURE SURVEY

1. BOOKS
Simon Lester and Bryan Mercurio with Arwel Davies and Kara Leitner-
World Trade Law- Text, Materials and commentary, Universal Law
Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2010 Print
Lester’s World Trade Law plays an important role for the understanding of
trade laws or remedies etc. This book contains detailed provision helpful for
understanding trade provisions. It is the first book to combine the best
aspects of both the casebook and the legal analysis. The book is globally
accepted.
It offers unique perspective on World Trade Law in many ways. It helps in
better understanding of the cases and reasoning.
The Scholar referred this book as to make linkage between trade and human
rights in my project.

Autar Krishen Koul- Guide to the WTO & GATT Economics, Law and
Politics, Satyam Law International, New Delhi, 2013 Print
 This book is highly accessible and basic to understand the concept of WTO
and GATT.
The Scholar referred this book very frequently to make my project. In this
book there is one chapter also which specifically talks about WTO,
International Trade and Human Rights.

2. ARTICLES

Stephen J. Powell: The Place of Human Righhts Law in World Trade Organization
Rules,

https://www.law.ufl.edu/_pdf/academics/centersclinics/institutes/itl/rp004.pdf

The Article aims to make understand the place of human rights law in the World
Trade Organization Rules with help of certain cases to find assent as applied to a
wide range of human rights topics in the WTO.

Sandrine Dawar: Trade and Human Rights exploring the impact of the WTO law
on state capacity to protect, promote and fulfill the human right to health.

http://dl.tufts.edu/file_assets/tufts:UA015.012.DO.00053

In the Article author analyze the nexus between World Trade Organization law and
the human right to health, in an effort to identify provisions that can, in fact, assist
WTO members in fulfilling their human rights obligations vis-à-vis the right to
health.
Gabrielle Marceau: WTO Dispute Settlement and Human Rights, EJIL (2002), Vol.
13 No. 4, pg 753-814.

The Article talks about the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system
could be sized of dispute carrying human rights claims or arguments in support of
either a complaint or a defence. How would WTO adjudicating bodies address this
issue? How human rights can be respected through good interpretation and
application of WTO provisions.

Caroline Dommen: Raising Human Rights concerns in the World Trade

Organization ,Actors, Processes and Possible Strategies,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20069588

The Article explore why calls for the WTO to take human rights on board have not
yet met with success. Discussed the specific conflicts area between human rights
and World Trade Organization Law.

LIMITATION OF PROJECT

The study will be limited in sources to scholarly articles and academic books in
addition to authoritative web-based sources, and will shun relying upon arguments,
basing its conclusions on premises derived from legal reasoning and analysis.
POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO FIELD

This project work will help in understanding the loop holes in the World Trade
Organization Agreement in relation to Human Rights issues and also understand
the need of considering the human rights laws in the International Trade for the
best interest for the member’s countries in WTO.

Bibliography

BOOKS

Simon Lester and Bryan Mercurio with Arwel Davies and Kara Leitner- World
Trade Law- Text, Materials and commentary, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt.
Ltd., New Delhi, 2010 Print

Autar Krishen Koul- Guide to the WTO & GATT Economics, Law and Politics,
Satyam Law International, New Delhi, 2013 Print

ARTICLES
Stephen J. Powell: The Place of Human Righhts Law in World Trade Organization
Rules,
https://www.law.ufl.edu/_pdf/academics/centersclinics/institutes/itl/rp004.pdf

Sandrine Dawar: Trade and Human Rights exploring the impact of the WTO law
on state capacity to protect, promote and fulfill the human right to health.

http://dl.tufts.edu/file_assets/tufts:UA015.012.DO.00053

Gabrielle Marceau: WTO Dispute Settlement and Human Rights, EJIL (2002), Vol.
13 No. 4, pg 753-814.

Caroline Dommen: Raising Human Rights concerns in the World Trade

Organization ,Actors, Processes and Possible Strategies,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20069588