UCL's WTO Scholars' Forum presents
New Directions in the Discourse on WTO Law Series 

Development in the World Trade Organisation 

on Friday 24 February, from 2-3pm

Speaker: 

• Sonia E Rolland
  Northeastern University School of Law

About this talk: 
Seeking to open paths for reconsidering the trade and development relationship at the WTO, this paper takes into account both the heritage of the trade regime and its present dynamics. It argues that the institutional processes for creating and implementing trade rules at the WTO and the actual regulatory outcomes are inseparable. A consideration of the development dimension at the WTO must examine both jointly.

It shows that the shortcomings of the Doha Development Round are in part due to the failure to assess trade rules as part of the legal processes and institutions that produced them. This book devotes significant analysis to the systemic impact of the WTO as an institution on developing and least developed members. From a pragmatic perspective, it provides a coherent and systematic analysis of the legal meaning, the implementation, and the adjudication of special and differential treatment rules for developing members. It then evaluates the different regulatory approaches to trade and development from a more theoretical perspective. The book finishes by presenting a range of proposals for a better balance between trade liberalization and the development needs of many WTO members.

 About the speaker: 
Sonia Elise Rolland is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University School of Law. Professor Rolland’s current research focuses on development in international trade law. Her book "Development at the WTO" is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Her research interests include public international law, international trade law, environmental law and energy regulation. She teaches public and private international Law, trade law and international business transactions. Prior to joining the law school faculty in 2009, she served as a visiting research scholar at Columbia University Law School in 2006 and taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School. Professor Rolland served as a judicial clerk at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (Netherlands) for President Gilbert Guillaume and Judge Ronny Abraham. She earned her doctorate degree from Cambridge University, her JD from Michigan University School of Law, her MA from the University of Paris 10 and her BA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.