CUHK Faculty of Law

Bryan Mercurio specializes in international economic and trade law. Author of six books and over thirty journal articles and book chapters, Professor Mercurio is a frequent commentator and speaker on a range of international trade law issues (including dispute settlement, the development and impact of free trade agreements, international intellectual property and public health). His work is cited by academicians, governments and international organizations, such as the WTO Secretariat. Professor Mercurio has advised law firms, NGOs and Members of both the Australian and New Zealand parliament on wide range of matters, including on pharmaceutical related aspects of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

Professor Mercurio is also an expert on electoral law, with the focus of much of his research on voting technologies and free & fair elections. His work and submissions have been cited with approval by Australian courts (including the High Court) and several Australian Parliamentary Committees. He has also appeared as an expert witness in a number of cases.

Prior to joining the Faculty, Professor Mercurio spent five years at The University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law, where he was the Director of the International Trade and Development Project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law. Professor Mercurio has also held visiting positions at the Center for International and Comparative Law at St. Louis University School of Law, The George Washington University Law School, the Institute for International Economic Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and at the National University of Singapore. Prior to entering academia, Bryan worked in both the public and private sector and practiced international commercial law and international trade law in Australia. He is currently a Fellow of the Tim Fischer Centre for Global Trade & Finance, a founding member of the Asian International Economic Law Network, an Associate Member of the Asian WTO Research Network and was one the Founding Committee of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). He remains on the Executive Board of the SIEL.

Education and Professional Qualifications

Representative Publications

International Business Law (Oxford University Press, expected late 2008) (with Meredith Kolsky Lewis)

Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements: Analysis and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming early-2008) (edited with Simon Lester)

Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements: Case Studies (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming early-2008) (edited with Simon Lester)

World Trade Law: Text, Materials and Commentary (Hart Publishing, forthcoming March 2008) (with Simon Lester)

WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: A Detailed Interpretation (Kluwer Law International, 2005) (with Yang Guohua and Li Yongjie)

Realising Democracy: Electoral Law in Australia (Federation Press, Sydney) (2003) (edited with Graeme Orr and George Williams).

10. ‘Retaliatory Trade Measures in the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: Are There Really Alternatives?’ in James Hartigan (ed) Trade Disputes and the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the WTO: An Interdisciplinary Assessment (Emerald/Elsevier, 2009) 397-442

9. ‘The Politics and Law of Prisoner Disenfranchisement in Australian Federal Elections’ in Alec Ewald and Brandon Rottinghaus (eds) Democracy and Punishment: International Perspectives on Criminal Disenfranchisement (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (with Ronni Redman and David Brown) 167-204

8. ‘Intellectual Property’ in Simon Lester and Bryan Mercurio (eds) Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements: Analysis and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2009) (with Michael Handler) 308-341

7. ‘The Japan–Mexico Economic Partnership Agreement’ in Simon Lester and Bryan Mercurio (eds) Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements: Case Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2009) 111-143

6. ‘TRIPS-Plus Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements’ in Lorand Bartels and Federico Ortino (eds) Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2006) 215-238

5. ‘The WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: How A Rules-Based System Benefits Australia’ in Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (ed), Ten Years of WTO Dispute Settlement: Australian Perspectives (DFAT, 2006) 105-122

4. ‘Japan–Mexico Economic Partnership Agreement: Completing the Matrix’ in Leon Trakman, Nick Ranieri, Marlon Lopez (ed), Doing Business in Mexico (Transnational Publishing, New York: 2005) 1-35

3. ‘The Future of Dispute Settlement in the WTO: The Implementation Phase Under Scrutiny’ in Ross Buckley (ed), The WTO and the Doha Round: The Changing Face of World Trade (Kluwer Law International, London: 2003) 115-143

2. ‘The Australian Electoral Tradition’ in Graeme Orr, Bryan Mercurio, and George Williams (eds) Realising Democracy: Election Law in Australia, 1 (Federation Press, Sydney: 2003) (with Graeme Orr and George Williams) 1-6

1. ‘Beyond the Paper Ballot: Discovering Computerised Voting’ in Graeme Orr, Bryan Mercurio, & George Williams (eds) Realising Democracy: Election Law in Australia (Federation Press, Sydney: 2003) 230-242

22. ‘Reflections on the WTO (and the Prospects for its Future)’ (2009) 10(1) Melbourne Journal of International Law__(forthcoming)

21. ‘Why Compensation Cannot Replace Trade Retaliation in the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding’ (2009) 8(2) World Trade Review 315-338

20. ‘Health in the Developing World: the case for a new international funding and support agency’ (2009) 3 Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy 27-64

19. ‘Growth and Development: Economic and Legal Conditions’ (2007) 30 University of New South Wales Law Journal (Thematic Issue on International Trade Law) 437-476

18. ‘The WTO and its Institutional Impediments’ (2007) Melbourne Journal of International Law 198-232

17. ‘Resolving the Public Health Crisis in the Developing World: Problems and Barriers of Access to Essential Medicines’ (2007) Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 1-40 (reprinted in Public Health and Law (IFCAI Press, 2008))

16. ‘Re-Shaping the Role of Developing Countries in the WTO: Analysing the Agreement on Agriculture’ (2006) 9 Balayi: Culture Law and Colonialism 73-107

15. ‘Expanding Democracy: Why Australia should negotiate for open and transparent dispute settlement in its FTAs’ (2005) 6(2) Melbourne Journal of International Law 485-515 (with Rebecca LaForgia)

14. ‘The Impact of the AUSFTA on the Provision of Health Services in Australia’ (2005) 26 Whittier Law Review 1051-1100

13. ‘The Australian Diaspora and the Right to Vote’ (2004) 32(1) University of Western Australia Law Review 1-29 (with George Williams)

12. ‘Should Australia Continue Negotiating Bilateral Free Trade Agreements?: A Practical Analysis’ (2004) 27 University of New South Wales Law Journal 667-702

11. ‘Electoral Law: Free and Fair?’ (2004) 32 Federal Law Review 365-395 (with George Williams)

10. ‘Electoral Law Symposium: An Introduction’ (2004) 32 Federal Law Review 357-363 (with Graeme Orr and George Williams)

9. ‘Improving Dispute Settlement in the WTO: The DSU Review – Making It Work?’ (2004) 38 Journal of World Trade 795-854

8. ‘Democracy in decline: Can Internet Voting Save the Electoral Process’ (2004) 22 John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law 409-456

7. ‘TRIPs, Patents and Access to Life-Saving Drugs in the Developing World’ (2004) 8 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review 211-253

6. ‘The Australian Contribution to the Dispute Settlement System’ (2003) 12 Currents: International Trade Law Journal 43-57

5. ‘Discrimination in Electoral Law: Using Technology to Extend the Secret Ballot to Disabled and Illiterate Voters’ (2003) (28)(6) Alternative Law Journal 272-276

4. ‘Australian Electoral Law: A Stock-take’ (2003) 2 Election Law Journal 383-402 (with Graeme Orr and George Williams)

3. ‘Overhauling Australian Democracy: The Benefits and Burdens of Internet Voting’ (2002) 21(2) University of Tasmania Law Review 23-63

2.‘Abortion in Ireland: An Analysis of the Legal Transformation Resulting from Membership in the European Union’ (2003) 11 Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law 141-180

1.‘Internet Service Provider Liability for Copyright Infringements of Subscribers: A Comparison of the American and Australian Efforts to Combat the Uncertainty’ (2002) 9(4) Murdoch University E-Law

Submission made to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on the Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2004 Federal Election and Matters Related Thereto, 23 March 2005 (called to give evidence to the Parliamentary Committee).

Submission made to the Senate Select Committee on the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States of America, 27 April 2004.

Submission made to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on campaign funding and expenditures, 5 April 2004.

Submission made to the Joint Committee on Treaties Inquiry into the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, 5 April 2004 (called to give evidence to the Parliamentary Committee).

Submission made to the Senate Inquiry into Australian Expatriates, 19 February 2004 (called to give evidence to the Parliamentary Committee).