One of the things that strikes me about people's attitudes to international organizations (or supranational ones) is the high expectations. Let me explain (this will be brief)
You take every country and you find rather significant elements of corruption. EVERY country. No exception. Some worse, some better. None of them perfect. We all know this, we have learned to live with it.
Somehow, though, when corruption happens in the UN (or another international organization), almost immediately you get "how can this happen, ABOLISH THE UN".
Why and how is it that people assume that fundamentally flawed states banding together will now become angelic? Of course there's some corruption. But the point is: we need these organizations. Imperfect as they are.

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More from @hhesterm

3 Jun
One of the criticisms of the EU pointed out in the Brexit debate is that sometimes responsibility between the levels gets confused. Curiously, Brexit has made this worse rather than better (short thread) telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
The article contains this passage
Of course, the extent to which you can hire foreigners and the procedures for that are entirely UK decisions. It is UK red tape. Whether desirable or not.
Read 6 tweets
2 Jun
CPTPP accession talks begin. Good news. But also: keep it in perspective (short thread)
First of all: there are currently 7 parties (Mexico, Japan, Singapore, NZ, Canada, Australia, Vietnam). We already have continuity FTAs with 5 of them (Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Canada, Vietnam).
We are also negotiating FTAs with the remaining two of the current parties.
Read 4 tweets
1 Jun
What a beautiful passage Aodhán emphasized. Apart from what he points out and the fact that Switzerland still is as connected to the Single Market as before and not frozen out (slow deterioration of access is the word), there's an even bigger problem (thread)
The proposal the author makes is a common market between Switzerland and the UK. But Ay, there's the rub: a single market means a mixture of harmonization and being forced to accept the other's goods whether they comply with your law or not /2
What the author is proposing is thus a mixture of either harmonizing the law with Switzerland or having an institution (court? Commission?) tell the UK "you say it's about safety, but really, that's a bad argument, you have to let their product in". /3
Read 5 tweets
20 May
Some thoughts on a trade tweet that - as many have pointed out - is wrong. Now I try to no longer critcise tweets of others, but there’s a point here and I would ask you to refrain from any ad hominem attacks (thread)
First the obvious: the tweet makes two points. Both of them are factually wrong. Let’s take them one by one. /2
First on tariff free quota free access: No. The partners had an FTA, but it did not provide for zero tariffs zero quotas. The FTA is here if you are interested. /3 austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/…
Read 16 tweets
18 May
Allow me to add a public international law take on this. Because it is international law that will count here. (Thread)
International law knows a number of ways to justify breaches of provisions. The first place to look for such justification is in the text of the treaty itself. Are there exceptions? /2
Of course here it’s even more complex - if the breach at issue is a possible breach of the UCC, well, then you’ll also have to look there. /3
Read 10 tweets
11 May
Bit patents and access to medicines at the WTO news: Bolivia's request for a compulsory license for export under existing TRIPS rules is going forward. A quick thread on where we stand /1
Great. That should be BIG news. Wow. OK. So, where were we? Right: Some background. Patents are territorial. A US patent is for the US, a UK patent is for the UK and so on. That's an important principle to know. /2
Countries can, under their laws, force a patent holder to grant a license. That is legal under WTO law - the TRIPS agreement. There are tons of requirements. Like paying money, imposing each compulsory license on its own merits etc. /3
Read 16 tweets

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