Monthly Archives: December 2015

Philip Morris v. Australia: A Big Win for Public Health

By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | December 29, 2015

Tobacco giant Philip Morris lost a major international legal battle to reverse Australia’s tobacco plain packaging laws using the Australia-Hong Kong Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) of 1993. On December 17, 2015, a three-member arbitral tribunal at Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) issued an Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility in connection to the case between Philip Morris Asia Limited and Australia.

The full text of tribunal’s Award is yet to be made public but media reports confirm that the…

Multilateralism under Challenge: Analyzing the Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference

By Biswajit Dhar | Guest Blog | December 28, 2015

Very few among the ardent observers of the World Trade Organization (WTO) had held any hope that the 10^th Ministerial Conference held recently in Nairobi would provide some direction to the seemingly rudderless organisation. The run-up to the Nairobi Ministerial was unlike any of the previous Ministerial Conferences as most of the members did not show much interest in drawing up an agenda for the members from the 162 members to discuss and take decisions. It was not very…