Trade and the Environment
This chapter provides an overview of a broad range of issues that arise at the interface of trade and the environment. After this introduction, Section II considers trade and environment in the context of the WTO, by examining relevant WTO agreements, recent trade disputes with environmental implications, the WTO’s Committee on Trade and Environment (“CTE”), and relevant mandates resulting from the recent WTO Fourth Ministerial in Doha, Qatar. Section III then seeks to place the traditional issues of trade and environment in the broader context of sustainable development, a concept that connotes a development path that optimizes human activities within economic, social and environmental spheres, and that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This is followed in subsequent sections by a thematic discussion of the main trade and environment issues, organized according to three main categories: 1) issues arising from material linkages between trade and other facets of the world we live in (Section IV); 2) legal and policyrelated issues arising between trade and other fields of law and policy (Section V); and 3) organizational issues arising between the WTO and other institutional arrangements (Section VI). Section VII concludes with some thoughts on the future development of international economic law and policy as it applies to the environment and sustainable development. The scope, diversity and complexity of this field prevent a single chapter from covering the subject in detail; this chapter, consequently, is designed to provide a sketch of some of the main issues of trade and environment and to complement the discussion of related issues as they are addressed in other chapters of this work.
The misguided debate over NGO participation at the WTO
Whether private parties and NGOs should participate in the WTO system has recently become one of the most contentious issues in trade law and policy. However, this debate proceeds from the implicit--but mistaken--assumption that these entities currently do not participate in the system. While, as a formal matter, WTO 'legislative' and dispute resolution systems are open only to state actors, in fact private parties already participate extensively in WTO processes. Through discussion of several WTO disputes, including the Kodak-Fuji dispute, this paper demonstrates how the current debate substantially understates the considerable roles that NGOs already play in disputes submitted to the WTO. The claims here are largely positive and descriptive, rather than normative. By identifying and clarifying the roles that private parties currently play, I hope to close the increasing gulf between academic debate and WTO practice, and move the debate over NGO participation to a more fruitful series of inquiries. To this end, I argue that the controversy over NGO participation at the WTO can be understood as a particular instantiation of a larger debate over the roles of non-state actors in the international legal system. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.
Suicide and Stigma: A Review of the Literature and Personal Reflections
ObjectiveThe authors aim to educate mental health practitioners and trainees regarding the issues of stigma and suicide and how stigma impacts this diverse population of suicide at tempters, completers, their families, friends, therapists, and others both personally and therapeutically.MethodsThe authors draw upon their own experiences as survivors and review pertinent literature illustrating the history and general impacts of this stigmatization. The authors present suggestions to diminish stigma both for survivors and the general public.ResultsAlthough there appears to have been some diminution in the stigmatization of the mentally ill over the past few decades, there appears to be less diminution in the stigma associated with suicide and suicide-survivorship.ConclusionMental illness, in general, has become less stigmatized in recent years but suicide remains nearlyas stigmatized as ever.