2006

The 19th Helsinki Summer Seminar on International Law “‘The WTO in Global Governance'” 14 – 25 August 2006.

The summer seminar is organized in co-operation with the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki and the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research.

Despite having little or no regulatory and distributive powers, the WTO has come to occupy a prominent place in international legal and political debates. To some, it is the handmaiden of global capitalism, protecting big business at the expense of other values; to others, it is the harbinger of world peace and human rights, guaranteeing a liberal world order based on respect and freedom. Such radically diverging perspectives suggest there are fundamental questions about both the WTO and global governance: what are the WTO’s “true colours”? How does it affect the global economy and the regulation thereof? Can the WTO function as something of a global constitution, and if so, how does it work and whom does it benefit? The 19th Helsinki Summer Seminar on International Law aims to provide a platform for thinking about and discussing such issues.

Lecturers:
Professor B.S.Chimni (The WB National University of Juridical Sciences)
Professor Mary E. Footer (University of Nottingham)
Professor Martti Koskenniemi (The Academy of Finland, University of Helsinki)
Dr. Pieter-Jan Kuijper (Principal Legal Adviser, the European Commission)
Professor Hélène Ruiz Fabri (University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Dr. Tuomas Tapio (The CoE in Global Governance Research, The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland)