Lawyer Monthly Magazine - March 2020 Edition

Penelope Ridings The history behind international law International law is a rules-based system which governs relations between States and under which countries agree on a reciprocal set of rules which guide their future dealings with each other. International trade law actually developed against the backdrop of trade protectionism and the retaliatory trade wars of the 1930s. The 1930 Smoot- Hawley Act imposed sizeable US tariff increases on imports which provoked tit-for-tat responses and exacerbated International law has one vital role: to promote global peace and prosperity, whether it be in trade or relations between different nations. With tensions rising between the US and China especially late last year, we heard from Dr Penelope Ridings on whether international law continues to have the power to prevent trade wars from occurring. Does International Law Have the Power to Stop Trade Wars? the Great Depression. In the post-WWII era, countries sought to avoid such outcomes and agreed to multilateral rules based on reciprocity: the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). A significant advance on this came with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The WTO and the GATT were built on the premise that liberalisation of international trade and the rejection of protectionism were good, not only for the global economy, but also for the economies of individual countries. Contact: DR PENELOPE RIDINGS www.peneloperidings.com pjr@peneloperidings.com 46 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | MAR 2020 An InterviewWith “I have been involved in numerous negotiations on behalf of the Government across a wide spectrum of issues, including trade”