The WTO Law on Subsidies and Climate Change: Overcoming the Dissonance?

The worrisome rise in the number of trade disputes relating to climate change policies leaves no doubt as to the relevance of WTO law to climate change policies. Perhaps the most contentious aspect of the relationship between trade law and climate change policies is the issue of subsidies — while many climate change policies rely heavily on the use of subsidies, WTO law considers subsidies a distortive force and aspires to limit the use of such measures. This article evaluates the compatibility of several climate change programs in light of the WTO law on subsidies. It argues that the current legal framework is unsuitable for the promotion of climate change abatement objectives. This is because relevant considerations such as the urgency of the climate change problem, the many market failures embedded in climate-friendly goods and services, and the political reality currently abundant in many states, are entirely disregarded by the WTO law on subsidies. The recent Canada FIT Panel and Appellate Body Reports seem to accept this critique, and consequently present a modified approach to the interaction between the WTO law on subsidies and the climate change challenge. Another promising route of action can be found in the model reflected in an agreement recently concluded between the EU and China, in which, prima facie, the parties decided to include non-commercial considerations as relevant for their own trading relations. These two recent developments may signify a change in the approach towards the interaction between trade law and climate change, as well as a realisation that the current legal framework should be re-evaluate

On the mean width of log-concave functions

In this work we present a new, natural, definition for the mean width of log-concave functions. We show that the new definition coincide with a previous one by B. Klartag and V. Milman, and deduce some properties of the mean width, including an Urysohn type inequality. Finally, we prove a functional version of the finite volume ratio estimate and the low-M* estimate.Comment: 15 page

Innovative Regulatory Frameworks Promoting Green Economy for Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication in Europe

The political Rio 20 Declaration challenges lawyers and legal professionals around the world to think creatively about the legal preparedness for the green economy. To this end, this study focuses on highlighting the legal changes that are being adopted in Europe, at national and regional levels, to facilitate the transition to a greener economy. The purpose is thus to point out the challenges that domestic governments face in transitioning to a greener economy and to research the means by which these challenges can be met. This compendium gathers recent practices in legal and institutional reform that exemplify promising methods of addressing green economy measures

Analysis of polarity

We develop a differential theory for the polarity transform parallel to that for the Legendre transform, which is applicable when the functions studied are "geometric convex", namely convex, non-negative and vanish at the origin. This analysis may be used to solve a family of first order equations reminiscent of Hamilton--Jacobi and conservation law equations, as well as some second order Monge-Ampere type equations. A special case of the latter, that we refer to as the homogeneous polar Monge--Ampere equation, gives rise to a canonical method of interpolating between convex functions