Elon Law Professor David Levine recently presented in The Hague, Netherlands and in Auckland, New Zealand, speaking about the importance of transparency in international trade negotiations and about the negative impacts of secrecy in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
At the November 1-2 Innovating Justice Forum organized by The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law (HiiL), Levine presented a “Reality Check” entitled “Secrecy and the discarding of old ways.” Levine’s presentation explored the value of transparency in addressing core questions of the forum, “how can citizens trust rulemaking by transnational public and private networks and the development of a global rulemaking profession?” The article upon which Levine’s talk was based was recently published in The Law of the Future and the Future of the Law: Volume II, published by Torkel Opsahl.
At the 15th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations, held December 3-12 in Auckland, New Zealand, Levine delivered a stakeholder presentation focused on the need to make the negotiations and the negotiating positions of the nations involved in formulating the agreement more transparent. Levine also delivered stakeholder presentations at the previous two rounds of TPP negotiations.
Upon his return to the United States, Levine spoke with HuffPost Live, December 12, about the TPP negotiations.
“Running issues like intellectual property through the rubric of trade, where only certain entities have the ability to provide input,” Levine said on HuffPost Live, caused him, “grave concerns about the ability to get balanced law based upon public input.”
Levine’s international presentations follow recent scholarship he has published, public actions he has led and news articles he has authored about secrecy, transparency and the formation of global trade agreements.
More information about David Levine is available here.