It would be an overstatement to say every international trade law issue is a GATT issue. But, when the stunning breadth, profound depth, rich history, and contemporary significance of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade are appreciated, then so, too, is the stark fact that the overstatement is modest at best. Coming to that appreciation, and providing practicing lawyers and legal scholars with a comprehensive, user-friendly treatment of each of the Articles in GATT, is the purpose of Modern GATT Law. Scarcely a trade issue does not implicate, at least indirectly, a concept expressed in GATT. Many trade issues directly impact one or more of the 38 Articles of GATT (39, counting Article XXVIII bis as a separate one). Every year a large percentage of cases that reach the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) raise GATT claims or defenses. That fact alone is a raison d'tre for Modern GATT Law. The justification is yet more compelling, because the book is the first treatise on GATT in nearly 40 years.

It covers the entire span of GATT jurisprudence, along with the interdisciplinary, especially economic, principles that provide essential context.