Law Commons^™

An Entity Sui Generis In The Wto: Taiwan's Wto Membership And Its Trade Law Regime, Han-Wei Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

As one of the founding members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Taiwan (the Republic of China or ROC) - the 17th largest economy, was granted accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2001 after its observer status of eleven years. Taiwan, classified by most commentators as an "unrecognized state" or an "entity sui generis", has been excluded from most of the major international organizations. Taiwan's accession to the WTO, therefore, is considered to be an important breakthrough in diplomacy for the past decades. Notwithstanding its WTO membership, the Taiwanese Government has employed numerous trade …

A Fundamental Misunderstanding: Fcc Implementation Of U.S. Wto Commitments, Laura B. Sherman

Federal Communications Law Journal

In bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, the United States has agreed to open the market for telecommunications services to foreign service suppliers, an obligation implemented by the FCC since 1998. In contrast, the United States has made no commitments with respect to broadcasting services or broadcast licenses. This article clarifies the different treatment of telecommunications services and broadcast services in U.S. trade obligations and FCC orders.

Is China A ‘Currency Manipulator’?: The Legitimacy Of China’S Exchange Regime Under The Current International Legal Framework, Bryan Mercurio, Celine Sze Ning Leung

Bryan Mercurio

While most economists are in agreement that China’s currency is undervalued, economists are less certain as to the effect of the undervaluation. Despite the equivocal data, critics of China’s regime claim that the undervaluation leads to cheaper, and therefore increased exported goods, while at the same time raising the price of imported goods. For this reason, U.S. lawmakers perpetually raise the issue and periodically initiate legislation, which would deem China a “currency manipulator” and thus trigger retaliatory measures. Lawyers are less certain whether there can be a multilateral solution to the perceived problem.

With the existing legal literature consisting mostly …

Rethinking The Relationship Between The Wto And International Human Rights, Gao Pengcheng

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Turbulent Waters Connecting The World Trade Organization And Corporate Social Responsibility, Gustavo Ferreira Ribeiro

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper uses the metaphor of a fisherman's journey into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) "seas" to explore the relationship between them. It is intended to provide the reader with a basic understanding of this relationship. An argument can be made that the WTO and CSR waters are not connected at all: the WTO is an intergovernmental organization regulating rights and duties of its members (mainly states), while CSR concerns primarily non-governmental initiatives dealing with corporate behavior, such as voluntary codes of conduct and certification processes involving social and environmental standards. However, this paper explores …

The Effect Of The Taiwan Relations Act Of 1979 On Res Judicata And Collateral Estoppel With Respect To Taiwanese And Third-Country Parties In United States Courts, Michael Buxton Devine

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

President Jimmy Carter terminated diplomatic relations be- tween the United States and the Republic of China (the ROC) or Taiwan on January 1, 1979, and Congress enacted the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (the TRA), effective on April 10, 1979, in order to replace the former diplomatic relations. The question then arose as to whether United States courts must recognize and enforce judgments of Taiwanese courts with respect to third-country plaintiffs who have prevailed over Taiwanese defendants. If so, then such third-country plaintiffs would be able to rely on the principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel in United States …

Conflicting Jurisdictions Over Disputes Arising From The Application Of Trade-Related Environmental Measures, Wen-Chen Shih

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Limiting Anticompetitive Government Interventions That Benefit Special Interests, D. Daniel Sokol

UF Law Faculty Publications

When government regulates, it may either intentionally or unintentionally generate restraints that reduce competition ("public restraints"). Public restraints allow a business to cloak its action in government authority and to immunize it from antitrust regulation. Private businesses may misuse the government's grant of antitrust immunity to facilitate behavior that benefits businesses at consumers' expense. One way is by obtaining government grants of immunity from antitrust scrutiny. A recent series of Supreme Court decisions has made this situation worse by limiting the reach of antitrust law in favor of sector regulation. This is true even though the Supreme Court refers to …

Winners And Losers In The Panel Stage Of The Wto Dispute Settlement System, Bernard Hoekman, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

Most research on the role of developing countries in the WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) system has focused on their propensity to participate as complainants, respondents, and third parties. Much of this line of research has sought to examine claims that developing countries are underrepresented as complainants and/or overrepresented as respondents in the DS system. This chapter examines whether the outcomes with regard to legal claims differ between developing and developed countries. It employs a dataset describing various aspects of the DS system that have been compiled under a World Bank project to take a first cut at exploring what the …

Burden Of Proof In Environmental Disputes In The Wto: Legal Aspects, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

This paper discusses allocation of burden of proof in environmental disputes in the WTO system. Besides laying down the natural principles that (i) the complainant carries the burden to (ii) make a prima facie case that its claim holds, WTO adjudicating bodies have said little of more general nature. The paper therefore examines the case law of relevance to environmental policies, to establish the rules concerning burden of proof that are likely to be applied in such disputes. Evaluating this case law, the paper makes two observations,: First, in cases submitted under the GATTWTO, adjudicating bodies have committed errors regarding …

The World Trade Organization: A Legal And Institutional Analysis, Anu Bradford

Faculty Scholarship

The law of the WTO can be complex and the intricacies of the WTO hard to grasp even by someone who has spent years studying this area of law. In providing a clear, well-structured and highly accessible introduction to the legal and institutional aspects of the WTO, Jan Wouters and Bart De Meester offer a refreshingly uncomplicated book that walks the reader through the basic legal doctrine underlying international trade.

Beyond The Wto? An Anatomy Of Eu And Us Preferential Trade Agreements, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis, André Sapir

Faculty Scholarship

It is often alleged that PTAs involving the EC and the US include a significant number of obligations in areas not currently covered by the WTO Agreement, such as investment protection, competition policy, labour standards and environmental protection. The primary purpose of this study is to highlight the extent to which these claims are true. The study divides the contents of all PTAs involving the EC and the US currently notified to the WTO, into 14 'WTO' and 38 'WTO-X' areas, where WTO provisions come under the current mandate of the WTO, and WTO-X provisions deal with issues lying outside …