Law Commons^™

The Impact Of Copyright Exceptions For Researchers On Scholarly Output, Michael Palmedo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

High prices restrict access to academic journals and books that scholars rely upon to author new research. One possible solution is the expansion of copyright exceptions allowing unauthorized access to copyrighted works for researchers. I test the link between copyright exceptions for health and science researchers and their publishing output at the country-subject level. I find that scientists residing in countries that implement more robust research exceptions publish more papers and books in subsequent years. This relationship between copyright exceptions and publishing is stronger in lower-income countries, and stronger where there is stricter copyright protection of existing works.

The Rcep: New Asian Regionalism And The Global South, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article provides an up-to-date examination of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is poised to become the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA). It argues that the 16-country mega-FTA will galvanize the paradigm shift in Asian regionalism and build a normative foundation for the Global South in international economic law. Based on intertwined theoretical and substantive claims, this article opens an inquiry into the assertive legalism of developing nations in the new regional economic order. By analyzing the converging policies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India, the article first demonstrates the status of …

The 2016 Amendments To Singapore’S Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act: A Missed Opportunity, Wee Ling Loo, Ee-Ing Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore hasrecently amended its Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act in response to calls for tougher action against unscrupulous traders. The revisions were aimed at strengthening the government’s ability to deter and punish errant traders, witha focus on deterrence. To this end, the government introduced new investigatory powers, enhanced court powers and added one substantive consumer remedy. Despite this, the authors argue that Singapore’s consumer protection regime remains inadequate because: unfair practices have yet to attract criminalsanctions; no guidelines were issued to provide transparency and clarity on how the broad investigatory powers and harsher court powers are to be implemented; no …

A Vatcoin Proposal Following On The 2017 Eu Vat Proposals - Mtic, Vatcoin, And Blockchain, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Michael Cheetham, Camille Tirand

Faculty Scholarship

The following proposal for an EU VATCoin was presented at the Digital Tax Transformations Conference, December 18 & 19, 2017 in Vienna, Austria at WU Global Tax Policy Center (WU GTPC) at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of Vienna University of Business and Economics.

The EU Commission has proposed “far-reaching reforms” to solve some of the fraud in the EU VAT. It hopes to capture €50 billion lost annually to MTIC fraud in goods. It hopes to do this without addressing tradable services, a MTIC mutation which by all accounts is running strong.

Fortunately, the Commission is …

International Investment Arbitration In Laos: Large Issues For A Small State, Romesh Weeramantry, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Laos is no stranger to international investment arbitration. Despite its status as one of Southeast Asia's least developed countries, it has had an Investment Law for more than two decades and is also a party to several bilateral and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related investment agreements. More recently, two investment treaty claims have been made against it, one of which has given rise to an award challenge that went all the way to Singapore's highest court. This article will examine the history, evolution and current iteration of Laos' relationship with international investment law and focus on the two …

A Destination-Based Cash Flow Tax Can Be Structured To Comply With World Trade Organization Rules, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper briefly outlines alternative approaches to enacting a destination-based cash flow tax that are more clearly compatible with the World Trade Organization rules than the approach that has previously been described in the literature. The first structural alternative involves expanding the universe of businesses subject to the tax by clearly defining both the base of the new U.S. business tax and its tax nexus requirement as domestic consumption, and thereafter treating foreign importers and other sellers equivalently, rather than imposing a deduction disallowance or an import tax. The second alternative involves adopting a business activities tax, and then enacting …

The Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements: Emerging Challenge For U.S. National Security And Economics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Rare earth elements (REE) contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as IPhones, satellites, and military weapons systems as varied as Virginia-class fast attack submarines, DDG- 51 Aegis destroyers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and precision guided munitions. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from countries as varied as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant adverse economic, …

Thinking About The Trans-Pacific Partnership (And A Mega-Regional Agreement On Life Support), Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Commissioned for a conference on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at VNU University of Economics & Law in Vietnam, this article provides a retrospective analysis of the partnership. It begins with a historical overview of the TPP. The article then examines the partnership’s status in light of the United States' withdrawal and contends that the TPP will exert considerable influence regardless of whether it is dead or alive.

The second half of this article identifies three interrelated but distinct aspects of the TPP: (1) as a TRIPS-plus intellectual property agreement; (2) as a regional investment agreement; and (3) as a plurilateral …

Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Rare earth elements (REE) contain unique chemical physical properties such as lanthamum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise properties to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as IPhones, satellites, and military weapons systems as varied as Virginia-class fast attack submarines, DDG-51 Aegis destroyers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and precision guided munitions. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from countries as varied as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant adverse economic, military, and …

Understanding What The Vienna Convention Says About Identifying And Using 'Sources For Treaty Interpretation', Donald H. Regan

Book Chapters

International trade law is overwhelmingly treaty-based. In the traditional sense of ‘sources of law’, the World Trade Organization (WTO) treaty is the unique source of WTO law, for practical purposes. Customary law and general principles play (p. 1048) virtually no role as independent sources of substantive law. But the WTO treaty, like any treaty, requires interpretation, and there are vexed questions about what we might call the ‘sources for treaty interpretation’. What materials other than the treaty text may be used in interpreting the treaty? And how are they to be used? These questions arise both for materials internal to …

Evaluating Frameworks For Multilateral Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Danielle Rosenthal

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Utilizing both empirical studies of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regimes and the accounts of both public and private practitioners of these processes, this study aims to inform public policymakers, multinational corporation leadership, and academic researchers on some of the key issues to consider when developing a multilateral friendly ISDS regime. By analyzing the procedural and functional details of both traditional arbitration (via the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and investment dispute courts (via those proposed in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the EU Canada Comprehensive Economic and …

Extraterritoriality Of The Regulations And Interconnections Of The Derivatives Market: Legal Implications For East And Southeast Asia, Christopher C. H. Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the legal implications of the interconnections of the global derivatives market, such as the exchange and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, in East and Southeast Asia. First, we introduce the interconnectedness of the global derivatives market. We then examine some legal implications of such interconnectedness from several angles, such as the extraterritoriality of relevant regulations (notably the reporting, clearing and trading mandates prescribed by the G20 and the new initial margin rule), standard product documentation, the effect of substituted compliance, the potential competition effect due to shifting OTC trades to exchange trading and the effect of consolidating exchanges and/or …

The Role And Future Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Trade And Investment Perspective, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Sovereign wealth funds ("SWFs") have been greeted with bothenthusiasm and suspicion. In one respect, they have been called "white knights," where they step in to inject financing to troubledentities.' In others, they have been called "Trojan horses" and"chameleons."

Comment On Us Trade And Investment Agreements Submitted To Ustr, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Comments to USTR Re: Review of US Trade and Investment Agreements (July 17, 2017): CCSI, in response to the United States Trade Representative’s request for public comment to inform its performance review of US trade and investment agreements, submitted Comments that focused on the impact that investment protection provisions, enforceable through investor-state dispute settlement, have on rights-compliant, inclusive sustainable development within the United States and abroad.

Communitizing Transnational Regulatory Concerns, Sungjoon Cho, Cecilia Suh, Jacob Radecki

All Faculty Scholarship

The conventional, rationalist view explains that a state will only assent to international regulation if such regulation directly serves the state’s interest. In contrast, nascent transnational regulatory intermediaries, such as the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee, seek to ameliorate such parochial state interests through a broader interstate dialogue. This Article addresses the challenging question of whether these intermediaries have any meaningful effect on the resolution of interstate trade disputes. To examine this question, this Article utilizes data from over 400 examples of “specific trade concerns” (STCs) raised by WTO members in the TBT Committee. Our …

The First Real-Time Blockchain Vat - Gcc Solves Mtic Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed.

Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the world’s first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a remarkable …

Demand Side Of Corruption And Foreign Investment Law, Austin Ignatius Pulle

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The United Nations Conventionagainst Corruption, regional anti-corruption conventions, the US ForeignCorrupt Practices Act, and laws against foreign bribery passed pursuant to theOECD Convention on Bribery have not operated to substantially reduce foreigncorrupt practices. The “design flaw” in these instruments and laws is that theyabandon the model of domestic anti-bribery laws that target both the supply anddemand side of corruption, and instead focus only on the supply side ofcorruption. Shielded from international accountability, corrupt officials inthe demand side continue to extort bribes from investors and other businessmenwho wish to operate in their countries. Arbitration decisions that considercorruption in the context of …

Geographical Indications Between Trade, Development, Culture, And Marketing: Framing A Fair(Er) System Of Protection In The Global Economy?, Irene Calboli

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter analyzes some of the topics on the current debate involving geographical indications (GIs) of origin that will be further elaborated by the contributors to this volume from a variety of perspectives and angles. As the title indicates, this volume focuses on GI protection “at the crossroads of trade, development, and culture,” with a specific focus on the countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This choice is due primarily to the fact that the analysis of issues related to GI protection in this region is, to date, not as extensive as the analysis in other regions, particularly in the Western …

Inside The Arbitrator's Mind, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Arbitrators are lead actors in global dispute resolution. They are to global dispute resolution what judges are to domestic dispute resolution. Despite its global significance, arbitral decision making is a black box. This Article is the first to use original experimental research to explore how international arbitrators decide cases. We find that arbitrators often make intuitive and impressionistic decisions, rather than fully deliberative decisions. We also find evidence that casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that arbitrators render “split the baby” decisions. Although direct comparisons are difficult, we find that arbitrators generally perform at least as well as, but never …

Can Wto Law Keep Up With The Internet?, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The regulation of Internet activities presents special challenges to the World Trade Organization (WTO), as its rules were mostly formulated in the pre-Internet era. The first difficulty lies in determining whether Internet activities should be classified as goods or services, as they are subject to different regulatory frameworks. Traditionally, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) only applies to goods. It was not until the establishment of the WTO in 1995 that services trade was finally brought within the scope of the multilateral trading system. While some activities, such as the online delivery of books and audiovisual products could …

R&D Spending And Patenting In The Technology Hardware Sector In Nations With And Without Fair Use, Michael Palmedo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This working paper uses two common indicators of innovation to see how the technology hardware sector compares in countries with and without fair use. It illustrates that research and development spending by firms in these industries has been higher in countries with fair use, controlling for other firm- and country-level factors. It then shows more patents have been granted to the technology sector in countries that have adopted fair use, relative to patents granted to firms in the same industries in other countries, controlling for other country-level factors.

Obligations Versus Rights: Substantive Difference Between Wto And International Investment Law, Chios Carmody

Law Publications

WTO law remains relatively uncontentious whereas international investment law elicits much more debate. This article posits that the differences in reception are attributable to deeper substantive differences about what is protected under each regime. In WTO law what is protected is the sum total of all commitments and concessions under the WTO Agreement, something that can be thought of as a “public” good. When a country injures that good, the remedy is for the country to cease the injury, a requirement that naturally places emphasis on obligation. In international investment law, by contrast, what is protected is individualized to a …

Cinderella Sovereignty, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Joseph Blocher and Mitu Gulati propose an insightful and thought-provoking critique of the barriers to secession under public international law. The critique an important contribution in its own right. I wish it had not been eclipsed by the authors’ clever and provocative fix: turning sovereignty into a tradable commodity. I suspect that this fix would bring about more suffering than the status quo for two reasons. First, a market for sovereign control is unlikely to be a market in any meaningful sense. Therefore, trading sovereignty would not discipline oppressors. Second, should something like a real market materialize, it could diminish …

Trump & Vat: Nafta, Trade Barriers & Retaliatory Tariffs, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

During the first presidential debate President-elect Donald J. Trump argued that the value added tax (VAT) operated as a trade barrier to American business everywhere. He particularly pointed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexico was a special concern. China was also a concern, but in this instance Trump was troubled both by China’s VAT and by China’s alleged currency manipulation.

This paper can only consider the VAT aspect of Trump’s trade policy. There appears to be some confusion about the operation of the VAT, particularly the border adjustment mechanism, and how US tariffs could “level the playing …

Irs's Cp-2000 E-Mail Scams - Never In Dubai - Common In Canada & The Uk, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On September 22, 2016 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its Security Summit partners issued an alert to taxpayers and tax professionals to be on guard against fake e-mails purporting to contain a tax bill related to the Affordable Care Act. Surprisingly, this e-mail scam works. It really should not.

Modern technology is facilitating many contemporary tax scams. In recent years the US has seen false (refund) return scams, phone scammers impersonation IRS agents, and now e-mail scams with fraudulent CP-2000 notices attached to a demand for payment. The same phone and e-mail frauds have appeared in both Canada and …

Blockchain, Bitcoin, And Vat In The Gcc: The Missing Trader Example, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time.

It is likely that blockchain will come first to …

The Road Not Taken: A Comparison Of The E.U. And U.S. Insider Trading Prohibitions, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

This essay, written for a symposium on insider trading in the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, explores the different paths taken by the United States and the European Union with respect to who is subject to the prohibition on insider trading. After providing an overview of the difference between the U.S. and the E.U. prohibition, the essay explores the different outcomes that would occur under U.S. versus E.U. law in several high profile insider trading cases of recent years. The essay also addresses the jurisdictional reach of each regime’s prohibition and considers the normative lessons of this …

Submission On The Draft General Comment On “State Obligations Under The Icescr In The Context Of Business Activities”, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In January 2017 CCSI made a submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding its draft General Comment on “State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Context of Business Activities.” CCSI’s submission focused on: (1) host and home states’ obligations as they relate to international investment agreements (IIAs); (2) extraterritorial obligations in the context of outward investment; and (3) state obligations related to corruption issues.

In the submission, CCSI emphasized that states must ensure that existing treaties do not generate conflicts between obligations owed under IIAs and the Covenant (in …

Abductive Reasoning In Wto Law, Chios Carmody

Law Publications

Law is about many things, but at base it is about rights and obligations. That jural correlation is established and sustained by means of reasoning. We hold that an actor has a right or obligation by virtue of reasoning that classically occurs in one of two forms. An obligation creates a right by means of inductive logic that rests on the conviction of similar instances in the past and the need for proof. It can also create an obligation by means of deductive logic, that is, the process of reasoning from one or more statements (premises) that are used to …

Review Of The Development Of World Trade Organization Law, Chios Carmody

Law Publications

No abstract provided.