ONLINE EVENT
This year, our annual G2 Conference will take a new spin. At a moment when trade is challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic and a resurgence of protectionist sentiments, and the WTO faces crisis across many of its core functions, we want to elevate new, fresh perspectives with bold ideas for the WTO’s path forward. Our focal point will be a three day hackathon for students from around the world, on: ‘How to Make the WTO Fit for Future Trade.’ The most innovative proposals will be featured on the day of the conference.
This event is co-organised by CTEI, the Institute of International Economic Law || Georgetown Law, Geneva Trade Platform and will take place on 14 April 15:00-20:00CET.
Every year the G2 Conference invites the trade community to join leading scholars and practitioners from all over the world to discuss the hottest topics in trade law and trade policy.
This year’s conference takes on a new spin. In addition to outstanding panels on legal paths forward on WTO plurilaterals and the path ahead for dispute settlement, we have challenged students from across the globe to a hackathon: a three day design sprint where they’ll work in teams of 2-4 to develop a fully considered and legally sound proposal for an outcome at the WTO.
With thousands of dollars in prize money on the line and an eminent jury, we hope to see bold new thinking from the trade policy leaders of tomorrow. We hope you can join us for what should be an exciting hackathon, fascinating discussions and useful and enjoyable networking facilitated by GatherTown.
Speakers during the conference will include:
Some WTO Members are championing deals with less than the full WTO membership as a way to make progress on issues from e-commerce to the environment, and have suggested several legal pathways for eventually incorporating them into the WTO framework. Other Members hold such plurilateral deals to be in violation of the letter of WTO law, its spirit, or both.
This panel will discuss the legal and systemic implications of the primary approaches being proposed, and the options available to their opponents and supporters.
Chair:
Gabrielle Marceau | Professor of WTO Law, University of Geneva; Senior Counselor, WTO Research Division
The 3 finalist teams will be invited to present and discuss their solutions before the Jury (listed below), ahead of the final determination of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers.
The WTO Dispute Settlement system was once considered the organization’s “jewel in the crown,” but that status is at risk with the Appellate Body empty and Members increasingly looking to unilateral, bilateral, or plurilateral approaches to resolve their disagreements.
In this discussion, eminent experts on international trade law will discuss the past, present and future of the dispute settlement system in light of the Biden Administration’s recently announced position, the European Union’s Trade Review and the ongoing impasse over the Appellate Body.
A the end of this session the winning team of the hackathon will be announced.
Chair:
This session will be held on our GTP Gather.Town space and will feature insights from our partners Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld LLP, Lee & Ko, The World Trade Organization as well as representatives from The Graduate Institute Geneva & the Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL) - Georgetown Law.
At a moment when trade is challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic and a resurgence of protectionist sentiments, and the WTO faces crisis across many of its core functions, the organizers of the 2021 G-2 hackathon want to elevate new, fresh perspectives with bold ideas for the WTO’s path forward.
We are challenging teams of students (2-4 per team) from anywhere in the world to collaborate and in just 72 hours, develop a fully considered and legally sound proposal for an outcome at the WTO that meaningfully addresses an issue that will be shared at the launch of the Hackathon (9 April 2021). Team members will need to be available from 9-11 April and 14 April afternoon 15:00-20:00 CET.
To answer the hackathon challenge, your team will be asked to do four things:
Teams will be evaluated by a panel of eminent legal and trade policy experts on (i) the creativity of their solutions, (ii) the rigor of their legal drafting, (iii) the feasibility of their proposed path forward and (iv) the clarity of their presentation.
The top three teams will present their proposals during a special panel at the G2 conference and the winning team will receive a cash prize of USD 3,000 followed by USD 2,000 & USD 1,000 for the second and third runner up respectively. The winning team will also have their proposal published as a policy brief or working paper on the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) at the Graduate Institute and at the Institute of International Economic Law, Georgetown Law websites.
*A team should be composed of 2-4 students. All participants in the team need to be current undergraduate, masters or PhD students at the time of participating in the Hackathon. Should one of your team members not be eligible s/he will disqualify the entire team. The students can be from any university or law school in the world.