Joost Pauwelyn advises governments, businesses, trade associations and non-governmental organizations on a wide range of international trade and investment matters. He has particularly deep experience as an advisor, litigator and arbitrator in policy matters and disputes under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and regional trade agreements. He works for clients in trade defense cases (anti-dumping and anti-subsidy) and offers advice and support under legal instruments aimed at making imports, supply chains and trade relations more sustainable and fair, especially EU instruments such as CBAM, EUDR, CS3D, foreign subsidies regulation and anti-coercion instrument. He also has experience as counsel and expert in investor-state arbitration.
He is also a Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, where he directs the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration as well as the Geneva Trade Platform. At the Geneva Graduate Institute, Prof. Pauwelyn teaches courses on international trade law, international investment law, sustainable trade and supply chains and public international law.
Prof. Pauwelyn has previously worked for major international law firms in Europe and the United States as well as taught at Georgetown University and Duke University. He has been visiting professor at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is the Co-Founder and was the first President of the TradeLab network of legal clinics on international economic regulation.
Government Service
From 1996 to 2002, Prof. Pauwelyn worked for the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, where he was legal officer assisting WTO dispute settlement panels and the WTO Appellate Body. In that capacity, he worked on close to a dozen WTO disputes involving matters ranging from sanitary and phytosanitary measures restricting trade and subsidies, to agriculture and tariff/customs disputes.
Honors
- Francis Deak Prize, American Journal of International Law (2009)
- Duke Law School Faculty Scholarship Award (2006)
- Paul Guggenheim Prize (2005)
Representative Matters
Prof. Pauwelyn has advised on, litigated and adjudicated major state-to-state trade disputes in sectors ranging from dairy and other agricultural products (beef, potatoes, salmon, apples, poultry), paper and tobacco, to automobile, intellectual property, and gambling and other services. He has assisted companies in various sectors (chemicals, steel, biofuels, airlines) seeking anti-dumping and anti-subsidy protection against imports into the EU and the UK. He has successfully challenged and obtained compensation for direct and indirect expropriation on behalf of foreign investors in countries such as Argentina.
Professional Affiliations
- Arbitrator, WTO Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arrangement (MPIA)
- Roster of Panel Chairs, Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
- Panel of Conciliators, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
- Indicative List of Governmental and Non-Governmental Panelists, WTO
- Roster of Panelists for the Resolution of Trade Disputes under the Energy Charter Treaty
- Roster of Arbitrators, Trade Agreements between Colombia and El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras
- List of Trade and Sustainable Development Experts, EU-Central American Association Agreement
- List of Candidates Suitable for Appointment as Arbitrators and TSD Experts in bilateral disputes under trade agreements of the EU with third countries
Recent Speaking Engagements
- An appellate mechanism for Investor-State Dispute Settlement, 8th Intersessional Meeting of UNCITRAL Working Group III, 24-25 October 2024, Chengdu, China
- Greening cross-border supply chains with better environmental footprint monitoring, Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum, OECD, Paris, 10-11 October 2024
- Hoe China aanpakken in wereldhandel?, Lions Club, Waregem, 3 October 2024
- Propos conclusifs, Colloque sur le droit du commerce durable, responsable et inclusif : Les voies multilatérales, plurilatérale et nationale à l’œuvre, Université d’Ottawa, Canada, 26-27 September 2024
- Members’ control over WTO dispute settlement, 2024 Seoul Symposium on WTO Dispute Settlement, Seoul, South Korea, 28 August 2024
- Historic and current calls to reform the WTO dispute settlement function, Third World Network Office in Geneva, 5 July 2024
- Present challenges and future design of international trade policy, Workshop of the Swiss National Science Foundation Sinergia Project on Trade Packages, Graduate Institute, Geneva, 6-7 June 2024
- Banking regulation in investment and trade disputes, American Society of International Law (ASIL) Abroad Meeting, University of Geneva, 5 June 2024
Publications
Books
- International Trade Law: A Casebook for a System in Crisis (with J. Hillman, H. Gao & N. Lamp), available online, Geneva Trade Platform, 2024
- The Foundations of International Investment Law: Bridging Theory into Practice (editor with Z. Douglas & J. Vinuales), Oxford University Press, 2014
- Global Challenges at the Intersection of Trade, Energy and The Environment (editor), CEPR, June 2010
- Human Rights and International Trade (editor with Thomas Cottier and Elisabeth Burgi), Oxford University Press, 2005
- Conflict of Norms in Public International Law – How WTO Law Relates to Other Rules of International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2003 (paperback edition, 2008)
Articles & Works in Collection
- Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law, 2015-2020
- 21st Century Customs Fraud: How to Effectively Enforce Sustainability Requirements on Imports?, 27 Journal of International Economic Law (2024) Issue 2, 203-223
- The WTO’s Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA): What’s New?, 22 World Trade Review (2023) 693-701
- Who Guards the ‘Guardians of the System’? The Role of the Secretariat in WTO Dispute Settlement (with K. Pelc), 117 American Journal of International Law (2022) 534-566
- Export Restrictions in Times of Pandemic: Options and Limits under International Trade Agreements, 54:5 Journal of World Trade (2020) 727-741
- WTO Dispute Settlement Post 2019: What To Expect?, 22 Journal of International Economic Law (2019) 297-321
- Is Globalization Finally Re-balancing? Novel Ways of Leveling the Playing Field for Labor, in ILO100 – Law for Social Justice (eds. G. Politakis, T. Kohiyama & T. Lieby), ILO Publications, 2019
- At the Edge of Chaos? Foreign Investment Law as A Complex Adaptive System, How It Emerged and How It Can Be Reformed, 29 ICSID Review – Foreign Investment Law Journal (2014) 372-418
- Carbon Leakage Measures and Border Tax Adjustments under WTO Law, in Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO (G. Van Calster and D. Prévost, eds.), Edward Elgar, 2013
- Non-Discrimination in Trade and Investment Treaties : Worlds Apart or Two Sides of the Same Coin ?, 102 American Journal of International Law (2008) 48 (with N. DiMascio) (winner of the 2009 Francis Deak Prize)
Education
- Post-Master in EU Customs Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Certificate on Sustainable Supply Chain Management, University of Cambridge
- Ph.D, Université de Neuchâtel
- M.Juris, University of Oxford
- Licentiaat in de rechten, KU Leuven
- Candidatures en droit, Université de Namur
Languages
- English
- Dutch
- French
- Spanish (intermediate)
- German (intermediate)
Bar Memberships
- Brussels