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Journal ArticleDOI

ISO and Codex Standards and International Trade Law: What Gets Said is Not What's Heard

Filippo Fontanelli
- 01 Oct 2011 - 
- Vol. 60, Iss: 4, pp 895-932
TLDR
In this article, the authors argue that international standards are used as a "ceiling" rather than a "floor" benchmark of protection, contrary to their original spirit, and that their nature is irreversibly distorted; they are treated as facts rather than as safety or quality devices.
Abstract
This article challenges the rhetoric of hardening, according to which international standards become binding through WTO endorsement. The analysis of the system of presumptions set up in the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement and Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Agreement reveals that international standards are actually used as a ‘ceiling’ rather than a ‘floor’ benchmark of protection, contrary to their original spirit. They represent a codified and agreed yardstick for least trade-restrictive measures, a minimum compromise between the regulatory regime and the trade litigation machinery. It follows that their nature—at least within the WTO system—is irreversibly distorted; they are treated as facts rather than as safety or quality devices.

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Global Governance of Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling: A Qualitative Analysis.

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Public play upon private standards: How European and international economic law enter into voluntary regimes for sustainability

E.D. Partiti
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International Standardization and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

TL;DR: Barrios-Villarreal as discussed by the authors examines the international standardization system with a specific focus on some of the bodies within this system, along with their rules and procedures, and questions the lack of definition regarding several features related to the system, notably an international standardizing body (ISB) and international standards in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

International regimes, transactions, and change: embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the prevailing view of international economic regimes is strictly positivistic in its epistemological orientation and stresses the distribution of material power capabilities in its explanatory logic.

The Emergence of Global Administrative Law

TL;DR: Global Administrative Law (GAL) as mentioned in this paper is an emerging field of international regulatory law that is influenced by international organizations, intergovernmental networks, distributed administration, and both hybrid public/private and private transnational regimes.
Journal ArticleDOI

Private Global Business Regulation

TL;DR: In response to global social activism, many firms have adopted voluntary regulatory standards to avoid additional regulation and/or to protect their reputations and brands as mentioned in this paper, which is a relatively new dimension of global business regulation.
Journal Article

The emergence of global administrative law

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify, among these assorted practices, some patterns of commonality and connection sufficiently deep and farreaching as to constitute an embryonic field of global administrative law.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Privatization of Global Environmental Governance: ISO 14000 and the Developing World

TL;DR: The ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards recently adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is illustrative of a hybrid private-public regime, whereby both states and private authorities are heavily involved in the creation and maintenance of international principles, norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures as mentioned in this paper.
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