Faculty & Staff
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Stephen
J. Powell Lecturer in Law Director, International Trade Law Program Affiliate Lecturer, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Affiliate Faculty, Center for Latin American Studies, Faculty, International Agricultural Trade & Public Policy Center Box 117629 / Gainesville, FL 32611-7629 e-mail: PowellS@law.ufl.edu 352.273.0835 / Fax: 352.392.1457 |
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Courses
- LAW 6930 – International
Trade Law (2 or 3 credits)
The underpinnings of the global trading system, from its beginnings in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the economic principles upon which it has thrived. Trade’s core principles of non-discrimination and open borders and how these concepts apply to daily business activities. The critical exceptions to the basic concepts, from regional trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, to remedies against unfair or surging imports (the antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguards laws), important disciplines on how WTO Members may address public health and safety issues, and trade’s record in coming to grips with the non-economic policies with which it increasingly intersects – such as protection of the environment, labor standards, and other human rights. Course concludes with areas recently brought under the trade regulation umbrella, such as intellectual property rights, services, and investment, and how the World Trade Organization can gain full participation of the lesser-developed countries that now constitute a majority of its Members. - Law 6930 – International
Trade and the Environment (2 or 3 credits)
Legal and policy issues raised by clashes between global rules promoting free trade and domestic efforts to conserve natural resources. The course explores the relationship between World Trade Organization rules reducing trade barriers and environmental treaties such as the Endangered Species Convention that rely on these very trade restrictions to manage resources, as well as efforts by the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Biodiversity Convention to reconcile the two critical public policy objectives. Equips future lawyers with background to advise how business strategies must account for both legal regimes. - Law 6936 – Dispute
Settlement
International Trade Agreements Seminar (2 credits)
In an integrated global economy where the rules of trade are established not in national legislatures but in world and regional trade forums, traditional means to settle commercial disputes – access to national courts and commercial arbitration clauses found in international contracts – will often be less effective to a company’s business success than invoking formal dispute settlement under governing trade agreements. The seminar provides an understanding of dispute settlement systems by focusing on the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement – the trade treaties with greatest impact on U.S. companies. Through analysis of cases, students will explore how a company’s export or investment plan may be impacted by disputes over food and product safety, protection of intellectual property and investments, and agricultural trade questions. - Law 6936 – Trade
and Human Rights in the Americas Seminar (2 credits)
Although human rights law and trade law have developed well-established regimes through a series of negotiations on parallel tracks since World War II, there is increasing criticism from a variety of fronts that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little to alleviate the gap between rich and poor. Must trade and human rights regimes necessarily conflict? This seminar explores the premises of the trade and human rights debate from the perspectives of both free trade advocates and human rights activists, with the purpose of imparting a better understanding of the rationales for both systems of law and the ways each is attempting to avoid a clash that could have profound impact on the protection of human rights and on the global market. - Law 6936 – International
Trade Law Seminar (2 credits)
Through examination of cases illustrating the leading contemporary legal and economic issues in international trade, this advanced seminar provides a deeper understanding of the rules that govern today’s global market. The seminar explores treaties of the World Trade Organization regulating food and product safety, the protection of intellectual property and investments, trade remedies, and agricultural trade, as well as the international resolution of disputes, the place of regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the role of the environment, human rights, and labor in the international trade and business arena.