Publications [#225827] of Tana L. Johnson

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Journal Articles

  1. Tana Johnson. "Information Revelation and Structural Supremacy: Understanding the World Trade Organization’s Incorporation of Environmental Policy." Review of International Organizations 10.2 (2015): 207-229.
    (last updated on 2015/11/18)

    Abstract:
    The international trade regime offers various instruments by which states can pursue environmental policies, even at the expense of freer trade. Why - and what are the implications? This article traces environmental instruments to pressures on governments when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was designed in the early 1990s: environment-related trade disputes were on the rise, environmentalists were concerned even with regional trade agreements, and countries from the North and the South clashed over the possibility of green-protectionism. Consequently, WTO-permissible environmental instruments share two key features. First, information-revealing conditions compel states to divulge private information in order to maintain trade-restricting environmental measures. Second, the fact that the trade regime has a formal dispute settlement mechanism at all, while many other international regimes do not, endows WTO rules and officials with structural supremacy over other areas of international law, including environmental law. An illustration from the WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement shows how this works in practice. The argument advances knowledge in political science, law, and policy: about dispute settlement, institutional design, and information-provision in international organizations.

Tana L. Johnson