Staff Profiles

Modules taught

• International Law
• International Economic Law
• International Investment Law
• International Environmental Law
• International Intellectual Property Law
• Law, Globalisation and Development

 

 

Supervision

• WTO law and related subjects, including intellectual property
• International environmental law
• European environmental law
• Science and law (particularly relating to Climate Change)
• Biodiversity and traditional knowledge
• Law and ethics
• Public international law

 

I have published widely on international trade and environment, particularly on the implications of the precautionary and proportionality principles. I am currently working in the area of law and environmental ethics, the role of public policy defences, and legal aspects of the Anthropocene.

Journal articles

• Cheyne I, Carss D N, Marzano M, 'Managing European Cormorant-Fisheries conflicts: problems, practicalities and policy'
  Fisheries Management and Ecology 20 (5) (2013) pp.401-413
  ISSN: 0969-997X
  Abstract

  This article focuses on transboundary conflicts between great cormorants, Phalacrocorax carbo L., and European fisheries interests. Two races of this species commonly occur in Europe; the ‘Atlantic’ Phalacrocorax carbo carbo and the ‘Continental’ P. c. sinensis. This migratory fish-eating bird has steadily expanded its European range and many consider this a nature conservation success. However, fishery representatives see the birds as harmful to their business and way of life, considering European Union (EU) legislation to be blocking the most intuitive and effective solution to the cormorant problem, namely co-ordinated, pan-European population reduction. This article argues that cormorant-fisheries conflicts and their resolution and management cannot be characterised as, or reduced to, a simplistic ‘pan-European’ vs ‘local’ argument. The nature of cormorant-fisheries conflicts is explored, key issues of cormorant ecology examined, and consideration is given to how impacts on fisheries might be measured. Discussions then focus on whether current policy prevents balanced and constructive solutions or whether better use of available instruments at local-national levels could actually be a vital step to a sustainable management solution.

  Website 
• Cheyne I, 'Intellectual property and climate change from a trade perspective'
  Nordic Environmental Law Journal 2010 (2) (2010) pp.121-130
  ISSN: 2000-4273
  Abstract Intellectual property rights are often accused of being a barrier to the dissemination of climate change technologies. The Trade-Related Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPS) is particularly criticised because it obliges WTO Members to protect intellectual property rights and is enforceable through a powerful dispute settlement system. The purpose of this article is to consider whether TRIPS might constrain or assist WTO members in transferring climate change technologies. A review of the provisions of TRIPS suggests that WTO members retain significant discretionary powers which may assist climate change technology transfer. Indeed, TRIPS may be positively beneficial by promoting confidence through balance and predictability.Website 
• Cheyne I, 'Proportionality, proximity and environmental labelling in WTO law'
  Journal of International Economic Law 12 (4) (2009) pp.927-952
  ISSN: 1369-3034
  Abstract Consumer information labelling is a vital part of modern environmental regulation, which has significant advantages over traditional command and control and market mechanism approaches. However, labelling has been accused of distorting competitive conditions by promoting discrimination between imported and domestic like products and by misleading consumers about certain types of products. The problem is qualitatively different from other types of trade dispute because labelling speaks directly to the consumer and her role within freely operating markets. The conflict has become entrenched in textual and ideological disagreements and demands a new approach that acknowledges the importance of providing consumers with information about the environmental implications of their purchasing decisions, while continuing to protect the rights of exporting WTO Members. This article explores the nature of consumer information labelling in regulatory theory and environmental law and policy, and develops an analytical framework that may help to break the current deadlock. This points towards the use of a proportionality approach with particular emphasis on the distance between consumers and the transboundary impacts of their purchasing choices.Website 
• Cheyne I, 'Precaution and International Trade in Food and other Agricultural Products'
  European Food and Feed Law Review 4 (1) (2009) pp.47-57
  ISSN: 1862-2720
  Abstract The use of the precautionary principle to justify trade-restricting measures has recently become a controversial topic in international trade law, perhaps inevitably when States approach risks in significantly different ways. The tension created by conflicting approaches to food safety has recently given rise to legal disputes over precautionary approaches to the use of growth-promoting hormones in cattle and the release of genetically modified organisms. The purpose of this article is to outline the key issues that underlie these types of disputes, and to suggest certain trends that may be emerging in WTO case law and their implications for the future.
• Cheyne I, 'Life after the the Biotech products dispute'
  Environmental Law Review 10 (1) (2008) pp.52-64
  ISSN: 1461-4529
  Website 

Book chapters

• Cheyne I C, 'Deference and the use of the public policy exception in international courts' in Lukasz Gruszczynski and Wouter Werner (ed.), Deference in International Courts and Tribunals: Standard of Review and Margin of Appreciation, Oxford University Press (2014)
  ISBN: 9780198716945
  Abstract

  Chapter 3 examines different methodological approaches taken by EU courts, WTO dispute settlement bodies and investment tribunals when dealing with public policy exceptions. In this context, the chapter identifies various levels of deference expressed by international adjudicating bodies, which are reflected in different control mechanisms used by them: an assumption that deference to the State is not unrestricted; controls over the substantive meaning of public policy; controls exercised through a required threshold of seriousness; controls exercised through evidential requirements and procedural controls. The chapter concludes that, despite exiting converges, deference appears most restricted in the case of the EU and more liberal in the WTO, and there is significant variation in the practice of arbitral tribunals.

  Keywords:   standard of review, deference, constitutionalism, public policy, legitimate objectives, indirect expropriation, weighing and balancing, proportionality

  Website 
• Cheyne I, 'Consumer Labelling in EU and WTO Law' in Liberalising Trade in the EU and the WTO, Cambridge University Press (2012)
  ISBN: 9781107012752
  
• Cheyne I, 'Regulation of marine antifouling in international and EC law' in Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell (2009)
  ISBN: 978-1405169264
  
• Cheyne I, 'Implications of international and European regulatory developments for marine antifouling' in Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell (2009)
  ISBN: 9781405169264
  

Reviews

• Cheyne I, review of The Future of International Environmental Law, in Journal of Environmental Law 24 (2012) pp.171-173ISSN: 0952-8873
  Website 

“Taming the Precautionary Principle in EC Law: Lessons from Waste and GMO Regulation” 6/2007 Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law 468-483

 

“Environmental Ethics and Proportionality: Hunting for a Balance” 9 Environmental Law Review (2007) 171-189 (with John Alder; my contribution was 70%)

 

"Gateways to the Precautionary Principle in WTO Law" 19 Journal of Environmental Law (2007) 1-18

 

"Risk and Precaution in WTO Law" 40(5) Journal of World Trade (2006) 837-864

 

"The Precautionary Principle in EC and WTO Law: Searching for a Common Understanding". 8 Environmental Law Review (2006) 257-277

 

"The Definition of Waste in EC Law" 14 Journal of Environmental Law (2002) 61-73

"Haegeman, Demirel and Their Progeny", in The General Law of E.C. External Relations eds. A. Dashwood and C. Hillion (London; Sweet & Maxwell, 2000) pp. 20-41

 

"International Instruments as a Source of Community Law", in The General Law of E.C. External Relations eds. A. Dashwood and C. Hillion (London; Sweet & Maxwell, 2000) pp. 254-275

 

"Trade and the Environment: The Future of Extraterritorial Unilateral Measures After the Shrimp Appellate Body" (2000) 5 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues (10,400 words)

<http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/2000/issue5/cheyne5.html>

 

"Law and Ethics in the Trade and Environment Debate: Tuna, Dolphins and Turtles", (2000) 12 Journal of Environmental Law 293-316

 

"International Trade And The Environment:  Ethical Issues" in Environmental Law and Ethics, J. Alder and D. Wilkinson (London, Macmillan, 1999) pp. 325-353

 

"Fitting Definition to Purpose:  the Search for a Satisfactory Definition of Waste" (1995) 7 Journal of Environmental Law 149-167 (with M. Purdue)

(cited before the European Court of Justice in C-304, 330 & 342/94 & C-224/95, Tombesi)

 

'Environmental Unilateralism and the WTO/GATT System', 24 Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law (1995) 433-465

 

"International Agreements and the European Community Legal System", 19 European Law Review (1994) 581-598

 

"Africa and the International Trade in Hazardous Wastes", 6 African Journal of International and Comparative Law (1994) 493-503

 

"Environmental Treaties and the GATT" 1 Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (1992) 14-20

 

"The Status of International Organisations in English Law" 40 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1991) 981-983

 

"The Foreign Corporations Act" 40 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1991) 983-984

 

"International Tin Council (3)" 39 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1990) 945-952

 

"International Tin Council (2)" 38 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1989) 417-424

 

"International Tin Council" 36 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1987) 931-935

 

"Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements" 36 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1987) 929-931

 

Conferences

I have presented at conferences across Europe and the US, most recently on the use of public policy in international courts and tribunals, intellectual property and climate change, precaution and trade, and consumer labeling in WTO and EU law.