International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”

Twenty-eight years after the emergence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime, the trade-environmental protection relationship seems to have achieved some harmonisation from an initial chequered one, though not without some forms of lopsided balancing of the variables. This work explores the relationship between international trade and the environment, revealing whether the competing values are balanced. The methodology adopted is doctrinal, with a comparative and analytical approach involving desk and library research. The work is bifurcated into six parts, commencing with an introduction in the first: the second flesh out international environmental agreements relevant to the trade-environment interaction. The third part examines principles of international environmental law. The paper reflects unilateral trade measures in the fourth part. The fifth part takes stock of WTO jurisprudence. While considerable efforts have been made to mainstream environmental protection into trade objectives through the WTO jurisprudence, there remain some forms of market failures, making the trade-environment relationship lopsided, with inadequate attention given to the environment, which brings to fore the need to revisit David Hunter’s metaphoric invisible elbow destroying the common goods created by an invisible hand.

世界贸易组织（World Trade Organisation，WTO）规则体系诞生二十八年后，贸易与环境保护的关系已从最初充满波折与不确定性的状态实现了一定程度的协调，但仍存在部分变量间的失衡问题。本研究探讨国际贸易与环境之间的关联，旨在揭示其中的竞争性价值是否得到了均衡考量。本研究采用教义学研究方法，结合比较分析路径，依托案头研究与图书馆文献调研完成。全文共划分为六个部分，开篇第一部分为引言；第二部分详尽阐释与贸易-环境互动相关的国际环境协定；第三部分剖析国际环境法的各项原则；第四部分论述单边贸易措施；第五部分梳理世界贸易组织的争端解决判例实践。尽管已通过世界贸易组织的司法实践付出诸多努力，将环境保护纳入贸易目标的主流范畴，但仍存在各类市场失灵问题，导致贸易与环境的关系再度失衡，对环境保护的关注度不足。这一现状凸显出重新审视戴维·亨特（David Hunter）所提出的、用以破坏“无形之手”所缔造的公共物品的隐喻性“无形之肘”的必要性。