The course provides an overview of the ways in which the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulates international trade and explains why the WTO remains highly important for that purpose. It reviews the theories for and against free trade and the rationales behind the need for an international institution, such as the WTO, to regulate international trade. It then reviews the origin and historical development of the WTO including the negotiations and conclusion of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the subsequent GATT rounds of trade negotiations which eventually led to the establishment of the WTO. It examines the institutional framework of the WTO including its objectives, functions, decision-making, membership and accession, trade negotiations, etc., as well as its dispute settlement mechanism. The course will then survey the major WTO agreements such as the GATT, the Anti-Dumping Agreement, the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The course will discuss the key rules under these agreements and the relevant WTO jurisprudence in a way that allows a good understanding of the basic rules and case law and facilitates a vigorous discussion of how these rules may be applied to some of the most cutting-edge issues such as non-market economies, state-owned enterprises, unfair trade practice, the US-China trade tensions, technology transfer, and regulatory autonomy in dealing with non-trade objectives such as national security. This course will also consider the ongoing challenges for multilateralism including the rise of unilateralism, the proliferation of regional trade agreements, and various proposals for the reform of the WTO.