This course studies the international rules on trade and investment: specifically, which multilateral, plurilateral, and bilateral treaties states, such as New Zealand, have signed up to, and what their rights and obligations are under these treaties in terms of opening up domestic markets to goods, services, and investors from overseas. We will study how these obligations have expanded over time into new areas of the economy to affect an increasing range of domestic regulatory decisions. This area is very much in flux, with new treaties being negotiated at the same time that the neoliberal model of free trade is being questioned. The course will introduce the core legal contents of the treaties, with an eye on the political and economic realities. We will also cover selected substantive issues, such as, for example, the balance between trade liberalisation and climate change regulation or trade liberalisation and te Tiriti o Waitangi.