WTI alumna receives writing prize for LL.M. thesis at Harvard

“Pursuing an LL.M. degree at Harvard was my long-standing goal. By the time I applied, I had gathered significant experience both in academia and the private sector. At the same time, I have always been curious about the U.S. legal system and legal culture that has had a major impact on WTO law from its inception. Among others, I was fascinated by the parallels between the U.S. constitutional law approach to interstate commerce and respective norms of WTO law,” she writes.

“While at Harvard, I also aimed to expand my expertise in international economic law and competition law and had the opportunity to take various courses at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School and Tufts Fletcher School. In my LL.M. thesis, under the academic supervision of Professor Mark Wu, I decided to explore the lack of use of mediation in the WTO and to propose broad policy recommendations for a new WTO mediation procedure that could be adopted on a plurilateral basis. An independent clinical project at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and participation in the 2018 Salzburg Lloyd N. Cutler Fellows Program in D.C. were also among the academic highlights of my LL.M. year,” she added.

During her project at the Peterson Institute, Tetyana Payosova co-authored two policy briefs reflecting on the WTO Appellate Body crisis and discussing the legal process in Canada and Mexico for potential NAFTA termination.

I was truly honoured to receive the writing prize for my LL.M. thesis and the Dean's Leadership Award and grateful to Harvard Law School faculty and my classmates for this recognition. My professional passion for WTO law, as well as my writing and leadership skills, is something that I developed particularly during my time at the WTI/ Institute for International Economic Law; now I had a unique opportunity to hone these skills and pursue my professional and academic interests here at Harvard,” she concluded.

Tetyana Payosova is part of the WTI team that won funding for a major research project on Switzerland’s Sustainability Footprint launched in 2017. Prior to Harvard, she represented the WTI as a panellist at the ELSA moot court competition.

Tetyana has also worked as a lecturer in Law at the IEW, where she coached the university’s ELSA WTO moot court team of the University of Bern. In addition she has served as a legal advisor at the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT), where she advised member companies on various matters of international and EU transport law and led a project on data protection.

Upon her return, Tetyana will join the WTO practice of a major European law firm and will complete her PhD studies under the supervision of Professor Thomas Cottier.