International trade law

[8] International trade law is based on theories of economic liberalism developed in Europe and later the United States from the 18th century onwards.

Alok Narayan defines "lex mercatoria" as "any law relating to businesses" which was criticised by Professor Julius Stone.

[citation needed] The Lex Mercatoria is the grouping of legal rules that guide and underlie international trade, which acts totally independently of the positive law of states, being considered normative.

[11] The former Lex Mercatoria was generated in light of the characteristic demands of the time in question, including the values, culture, and future provisions of the time, whereas, the new one is recognized as having the responsibility of common international trade law.

Many things impacted GATT like the Uruguay Round and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

This is because the GATT was meant to be a temporary fix to trade issues, and the founders hoped for something more concrete.

[14] The idea of these agreements (WTO and GATT) was to create an equal field for all countries in trade.

This arguably has had a negative impact on access to essential medicines in some nations such as less developed countries, as the local economy is not as capable of producing more technical products such as pharmaceuticals.

The WTO dispute settlement body is operational since 1995 and has been very active since then with 369 cases in the time between 1 January 1995 and 1 December 2007.