Kamperman Sanders, Anselm --- "Introduction" [2014] ELECD 810; in Kamperman Sanders, Anselm (ed), "The Principle of National Treatment in International Economic Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) xvi

Book Title: The Principle of National Treatment in International Economic Law

Editor(s): Kamperman Sanders, Anselm

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783471218

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Kamperman Sanders, Anselm

Number of pages: 7

Extract:

Introduction
Anselm Kamperman Sanders

This volume comprises contributions presented at or inspired by the first
leg of the XIV EIPIN Congress, which was held at Maastricht University
on 31 January and 1 February 2013, hosted by the IPKM in Maastricht
for the very first time.
The topic covered at this conference was `The National Treatment
Principle in an EU and International Context', which enabled the
participants to discuss one of the most fundamental non-discrimination
principles in international economic and intellectual property law in an
interdisciplinary setting. Speakers were invited from the worlds of
international trade, international investment and intellectual property law
to shed light on the communalities and differences in the application of
the principle of national treatment.
It has to be understood from the outset that the principle of national
treatment that is enshrined in a number of international treaties is a very
generous principle in that foreign nationals, goods, services or invest-
ments are not treated on a reciprocal basis, which would invariably result
in a fragmented landscape for cross-border trade, but rather equal to (or
no less favourable than) domestic nationals, goods, services or invest-
ments. In awarding national treatment, governments agreed to reduce the
tailor-made reciprocal advantages that they could offer to one trading
partner over another, but also not to favour one's own industry over
foreign interests (IP, goods, services, investment). In the process greater
certainty in trade was established, irrespective of the nationality of a right
holder of industrial or ...