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International Policy and Law of Food

Professors

David A. Wirth (Boston College)

Schedule


Course description
Food is essential to human survival. It is also a source of interest, pleasure, concern, and profit to individuals, industry, and governments. Inevitably, we make decisions about the food we eat, some with great particularity such as those who describe themselves as vegans. Food quality and dietary choices are a major issue, with the obesity epidemic that originated in the United States now spreading abroad. Many of us have preferences about where our food comes from, as demonstrated by the “Farm to Fork” and “locavore” movements. The popularity of organic food responds to a concern among some about how food is grown. And all of us are concerned about the purity and safety of the food we eat, with outbreaks of foodborne illness in cantaloupes and contamination such as the European horse meat scandal dominating headlines.

Increasingly, issues related to food are international in dimension. For example fifteen percent of the total U.S. food supply is imported, including 50% of fresh fruits, 20% of fresh vegetables, and 80% of seafood. Food insecurity continues to be a serious problem in the twenty-first century, as 870 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. In 2011, nearly 4 billion tons of food aid was provided internationally, reaching more than 65 million people. At the same time, our own country produces significant food surpluses – nearly 3 billion metric tons in 2008 -- largely as a result of agricultural subsidies, and the United Nations reports annual food surpluses globally.

As the numerous issues connected with food have become ever more international, there has been a commensurate need for the adoption of rules and the creation of institutional infrastructure to govern interactions between governments, to regulate the behavior of food suppliers, and to protect public health and safety. This course examines those issues on the international level through the lens of law and governance.

There are no prerequisites, and no prior familiarity with either public international law or domestic regulatory law is assumed in this seminar-style course. Basic principles in both areas will be elaborated by the instructor as necessary to facilitate discussion, and every component is designed to include all background necessary to a complete understanding of the material.

Much of the course addresses basic analytical skills associated with the study of the law governing the relations between states, and to that extent provides an introduction to international law. The course also provides an introduction to some substantive areas of international law, such as trade and human rights, as well as exposure to international institutions such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Trade Organization. It is also designed to familiarize students with working with the texts of primary legal materials, such as treaties, statutes, and regulations.

The course, taught by a law professor with extensive experience in instruction of non-law students, may be of particular interest to those considering law school as a user-friendly introduction to legal method. It should also cover material of interest to those studying social sciences, including international relations, political science, and sociology, as well as to generalists. There will be a particular emphasis on European policy, law, regulation, and institutions devoted to food, such as geographical indications (including UN agencies located in Rome).

This preliminary syllabus is based on experience in prior years and is representative of the schedule students can anticipate. It will be updated before the course sessions commence. The actual schedule may vary, depending on the particular situation at the time of delivery. Some links are, or may become, out of date, and will be updated before the beginning of the course.

Learning outcomes

This course introduces students to the basic doctrines, theories, and methodologies of international food policy and law. By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a basic grasp of the substantive content of international food policy and law, including sources of policy and law, modes of policy- and law-making, and international dispute settlement;
  • Assimilate the structure of decision-making processes in which international food policy and law is made, applied, enforced, and implemented;
  • Actively work with sources of international policy and law to determine the manner in which international food policy and law is discerned, made, implemented, and applied;
  • Demonstrate the capacity to interpret, apply, and critically evaluate primary documentation related to international food policy and law, such as treaties and other international instruments;
  • Develop an appreciation for the structure and operation of intergovernmental organizations;
  • Utilize an understanding of international food policy and law as a vehicle for integrating comprehension of larger international issues on the world stage;
  • Actively participate in and contribute to practical problem-solving exercises and simulations as a means to facilitate skills development through active learning;
  •  

Simulated multilateral negotiation

The course will include a simulated multilateral negotiation of a Codex Alimentarius standard on labelling for “natural” products of agricultural origin. Students will be assigned roles as governmental representatives or non-state observers. The purposes of the negotiation include the assimilation of the course material through active learning techniques and exposure to the real-world dynamics of international diplomacy.

The negotiation will be conducted over three sessions during the span of the course. Each round of negotiations will require a written work product in advance (an opening statement or a negotiating proposal, as the case may be) as indicated on the schedule below.

Detailed instructions will be distributed in writing and explained in advance of the first session. The negotiation itself will not be graded, but all course participants are expected actively to contribute to the exercise.

Course website and readings

There is no text required for purchase. A Moodle website will be established for the course. The website will contain this syllabus, a cumulative list of assignments to date, and other documentation as announced in class. If you are uncertain of the current assignment, consult the documentation on the website. I may also communicate between sessions via announcements on the Moodle website, so be sure to check your e-mail account regularly.

Evaluation, grading, and attendance

This course will be evaluated by two in-class examination exercises, one a midterm which will count 35% of the grade, and an in-class final examination which will count 55%, with the remainder (10%) consisting of class participation. The take-home midterm exercise will likely be held in week , and the final examination during the formally-scheduled examination period.

Examination questions and sample answers from previous years will be posted to the course website.

It is expected that you will routinely attend, be prepared for, and participate in all class sessions. Your contribution to the simulated negotiations will not be graded as such, but may affect the evaluation of your class participation.

 

Class sessions and reading assignments

The subject matter and representative reading assignments for each class are set out below. Any modifications to this agenda will be clearly transmitted to students, most likely via e-mail and oral announcements. Material not covered in one class will be addressed in the next; in other words the entirety of the material will be covered in the order set out below. Additional material, particularly that relating to current events that take place during the course, may be interpolated from time to time. Assignments, particularly in the latter portion of the course, are subject to change as the schedule evolves.

The number and variety of the readings have been chosen with an emphasis on primary documents, so as to expose students to the diversity of sources in this rapidly evolving field. In cases where that is possible, they have been edited to focus on the relevant portions. Otherwise, the assignment clearly directs you to the relevant passages – many of which are quite brief, in some instances as short as one sentence.

Note that the readings may include links to primary documentation, but that the reading within those documents is highly targeted, and limited. It is pedagogically helpful for you to engage with the entire document, but you can (and should) focus your close attention on the indicated passages, which will be discussed in class.

This syllabus is subject to further modification as reflected in individual class assignments. Any modifications to the reading assignments as set out below will be clearly announced in class and/or on the Moodle website (see above).

Week 1, class 1

This introductory class provides basic background that supports the analytical subjects presented in the remainder of the course. For the first class, no need to prepare anything, but we will as a group construct a typology of the international law of food, in anticipation of the remainder of the course.  Please think about the following questions beforehand:

  • What kind of issues would you expect to be dealt with internationally, as opposed to domestically, or perhaps some combination of both?  Give some thought not just to substantive subject matter areas (e.g., food safety), but also the attributes or criteria that such issues (which are multiplying rapidly even as the course takes place) might have in common.
  • What food-related issues would you expect to benefit (or suffer, for that matter) from the application of public policy in the form of law?  Specifically international law?   (Don’t worry about what “international law” is for the time being, we’ll deal with that as we go along).

Week 1, class 2 & Week 2, classes 1&2: International Human Right to Food

These three classes will explore the need for food from a legal, and particularly human rights, perspective

Readings:

Also take a look at the UN organagram, http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/structure/pdfs/UN_System_Chart_30June2015.pdf.

These classes will contain an introduction to the simulated negotiation, role assignments, and confidential instructions.

Week 3, classes 1&2: Food Security

These classes will address issues of food aid and international assistance, as well as the role of multilateral institutions (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank) national and supranational institutions (U.S. Agency for International Development, EU institutions) and other international institutions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). While not part of the readings as such, give some thought as to how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Oxfam, Care, and Save the Children fit into a broader understanding of agenda-setting and implementation of food security policy.

Readings:

Week 4, class 1

This class will be devoted in its entirety to the first round of the negotiation simulation.

Week 4, class 2: Governmental Regulatory Structures for Food Part 1 (U.S.)

This series of classes will class will provide background by discussing national laws, institutions, and regulatory authorities (e.g., USDA, FDA, European Food Safety Authority) responsible for the purity and safety of the food supply, including their powers, jurisdiction, and functional limitations.

This class is a more detailed discussion of food safety issues, including the Food Safety Modernization Act in the United States.

Readings:

  • Wirth, The Food Safety Modernization Act and International Trade Rules, in Research Handbook on International Food Law (Edward Elgar: Michael Roberts ed. 2023), course website, to be supplied. Read only pages 262-269 (“Statutory Structure”) (course website).

Week 5, class 1: Governmental Regulatory Structures for Food Part 2: European Union

  • Structural background on the European Union: http://www.dadalos-europe.org/int/grundkurs4/eu-struktur_1.htm#Rat_der_EU
  • Chronology of Major Treaty Changes (posted on course website under “Course Materials.”
  • As background, please read Emilie H. Leibovitch, Food Safety Regulation in the European Union: Toward an Unavoidable Centralization of Regulatory Powers, 43 Tex. Int’l L.J.429 (2008), http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/43/num3/Leibovitch429.pdf The article makes an argument for the centralization of food safety authority in the EU and contains a useful comparative analysis with the U.S. It also highlights the enumerated and limited powers of EFSA. In your reading focus on section II.A (“Historical Evolution,” pp. 432-433 in original pagination) and, to get a greater understanding of EFSA’s powers in particular situations, section III (“Toward an Inevitable Centralization . . . “, pp. 442-449).
  • Please take a look at EFSA’s home page to get a sense of what the institution does and how it does it: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/aboutefsa.htm, Please review the interactive tool “From Field to Fork.” The organizational structure can be found at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/assets/orgchart.pdf. Keep this structure in mind as you read the excerpts from Regulation 178/2002 below.
  • The legal instrument creating EFSA is Regulation178/2002, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32002R0178&from=EN. Scan Chapter III, dealing with the institutions and powers of EFSA, pages L31/12 to L31/19, stopping before “Section 5, “Financial Provisions.”

Week 5, class 2: Governmental Regulatory Structures for Food Part 3: China

  • Professor Shen's article on China's food safety law, The Development of and Challenges Facing Food Safety Law in the People’s Republic of China (available on TWEN course website in folder “Course Materials.) Unlike the material on FSMA we have encountered so far, this excerpt deals with both domestic regulation and exports. As you read, pay attention to both, identifying the different regulatory challenges presented by exports. We will encounter agricultural exports from countries like China when we return to the import provisions of FSMA.
  • An article from Wikipedia on food safety incidents in China, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China. (Ordinarily I would not assign an excerpt from Wikipedia for a university class, but this was recommended by a colleague who is an expert on China). How do the various incidents described in this article differ one from another in their attributes from a public policy point of view? What regulatory tools would be relevant, useful, or necessary in addressing each?
  • Article from Food Safety News (website under "Course Materials"). This publication is what is known in the biz as a "trade paper". Typically these are small operations with low circulation often to a narrow industry niche, and consequently high costs. Not surprisingly, subscription rates have tended to be quite high, often prohibitively so even for academic libraries. Somewhat to my surprise, apparently one can get a free subscription to this one, by going to http://www.foodsafetynews.com/. Highly recommended (except right before lunch)!
  • U.S. FDA – China MOU, website “Food Safety in the U.S.” What is this instrument designed to do, and how does it do it?
  • U.S.-China MOU no. 2, website “Food Safety in the U.S.” What is this instrument designed to do, and how does it do it?

Think about convergence with the principles of food safety policy and practice that we have been discussing so far in class – what challenges has China faced in delivering safe food to its public, and how has it responded from a regulatory design point of view?

Week 6, class 1

The entirety of this will be occupied by the second of the three rounds of the simulated negotiation on a Codex Alimentarius standard for the term “natural.”

Week 6, class 2 & Week 7, classes 1 & 2: Trade in Agricultural products: Food safety regulations as potential trade barriers

These classes examine in greater detail the potential for divergences in national regulatory policies to manifest as trade disputes. In particular, these sessions address the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phyotosanitary Measures, as applied in the EC-Hormones and EC-Biotech disputes, and the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, as applied in the Tuna II labeling dispute, protected designations of origin, and the COOL case.

Readings:

  • Turtle/shrimp Appellate Body report: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/58abr.pdf. Read paras. 113-172 (pp. 41-70). Why did the U.S. measure fail to satisfy the chapeau of article XX? You should be able to make a list of at least 5 or 6 reasons.
  • SPS Agreement and beef hormones report (website). Focus on the relationship between the text of the SPS agreement and the interpretation of particular passages by the Appellate Body in the report. You should find the discussion questions in the handout helpful in this regard. A page is missing from the Appellate Body report, which is also posted on the website.
  • Wirth, The World Trade Organization Dispute Over Genetically Modified Organisms: The Precautionary Principle Meets International Trade Law, 37 Vermont L.R. 1153 (2013), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1605&context=lsfp/ Read from the beginning through page 1172, stopping at “The Quarantine Disputes.” Begin reading again at page 1177 “The GMO Dispute” to the end.

Week 8, class 1

This class will be devoted in its entirety to the in-class mid-term exercise. Sample questions and answers from previous years will be available on the course website.

Week 8, class 2 & Week 9, class 1: Resources of the Global Commons: Fisheries

These classes address fisheries agreements as challenges to the collective management of common resources. The class also addresses alternative means of protecting commercially important species, such as listing bluefin tuna (used in sushi) and endangered sharks (commercially harvested for their fins) by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Read closely:

Week 9, class 2: Agricultural Subsidies

The WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) establishes categories of prohibited (“red box”) and actionable (“amber box”) subsidies. The latter are not prohibited, but can be challenged through the dispute settlement process if they cause injury, serious prejudice, or loss of market access to another WTO Member in a third state. In the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), WTO Members undertook to reduce trade-distorting subsidies in the agricultural sector. The AoA provides for “blue box” subsidies, which are those that would ordinarily be treated as “amber box,” but also require farmers to limit production. The AoA also has a category of “green box” or permitted subsidies. Disciplining agricultural subsidies, particularly in industrialized countries such as the United States, Japan, and the EU, is already a component of the Doha Development Agenda.

Readings:

Week 10, classes 1&2: Geographical Indications

  • On the relationship between geographical indications, trade law, and food safety, please read Wirth, Geographical Indications, Food Safety, and Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities (March 29, 2015). Boston College Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 359. Available at http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1943&context=lsfp. This paper will be uploaded to the course website as well.
  • FAO, GIs and Sustainability (“GI” module on Canvas course website). Read only pp. 49-70, 83-90 (§§ 2.1-2.3, § 2.5).

To what extent do you think geographical indications are useful policy tools for encouraging sustainable development? To what extent perhaps not?

Week 11, class 1

The entirety of the class will be devoted to the third and final round of the simulated negotiation on a Codex Alimentarius standard for the term “natural” in raw and processed agricultural commodities.

Week 11, class 2: Private voluntary standards (using fair trade coffee as an example)

  • Wirth, The International Organization for Standardization: Private Voluntary Standards as Swords and Shields, 36 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 79 (2009) (course website)
  • As you read Elizabeth Bennett, A Short History of Fairtrade Certification Governance,  http://www.elizabethannebennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fairtrade_history_chapter_BENNETT_2012.pdf, (also on Canvas course website in “Fair Trade” module), think of how this issue fits into the other issues of the course – right to food, economic, social, and cultural rights, food security, and trade rules being among the most obvious.

To what extent to you think that private voluntary standards are useful vehicles for encouraging sustainable development practices? To what extent to you think perhaps not? Why

Week 12, class 1: Animal welfare standards in the United States and Europe

In the United States, as you can see, this question is left largely to voluntary action; in Europe, by contrast mandatory -- although there are limits to both generalizations. To what extent is learning possible between the two approaches?

Week 12, class 2

Q&A Review for final examination.

 

 

 

Course duration: 40 hours of tuition
Credits equivalence: 6 ECTS

 

Last updated: August 6, 2026

 

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