International Trade Law Commons^™

The Digital Challenge To International Trade Law, Wentong Zheng

UF Law Faculty Publications

The rise of the Internet and so-called digital trade has significantly transformed international trade. International trade law, however, has lagged behind in regulating the phenomenon. Decades-long negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over digital trade have largely stalled, while efforts to deal with the issue at the bilateral and regional levels have resulted in inconsistent and fragmented rules. This article discusses the challenges posed by digital trade to international trade law and the best ways to meet those challenges. It contributes to the discourse on digital trade by advocating for a back-to-basics approach. It argues that instead of undertaking …

The International Claims Trade, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

Investments are mobile in the twenty-first century international economy. They are seldom held for their duration by a single owner from a single country. They change hands and they do so for a variety of reasons, often in the course of a dispute. But the scholarship addressing what happens when international investments and legal claims against sovereigns regarding those investments change hands appears only at the margins. The practice of buying and selling claims or claims trading is well known and institutionalized in some areas of domestic litigation. For cross-border investment disputes against sovereigns, however, many of the cases discussing …

A Dive Into Eb-5: A Need For Complete Modernization Of U.S. Investor-Based Immigration Program Or Eb-5 (Employment-Based Immigration: Fifth Preference), James Reiser

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Smart Contracts Enhance Firm Efficiency In Emerging Markets?, Kevin J. Fandl

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Blockchain technology has the potential to eliminate one of the most significant barriers to economic growth through private business transactions in developing countries—lack of trust. In a typical developed country, individuals and firms conduct transactions within an institutional environment that offers security through the enforcement of agreements. Transparent and effective courts, while imperfect to be sure, enable parties to feel secure in their transactions even if their level of trust in the other party is low. This security, in turn, facilitates transactions far afield from high-trust relationships (e.g., immediate relatives), generating transactions based upon economic value rather than party trust …

Implementing User Rights For Research In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence: A Call For International Action, Sean Flynn, Christophe Geiger, João Pedro Quintais, Thomas Margoni, Matthew Sag, Lucie Guibault, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Last year, before the onset of a global pandemic highlighted the critical and urgent need for technology-enabled scientific research, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an inquiry into issues at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI). We contributed comments to that inquiry, with a focus on the application of copyright to the use of text and data mining (TDM) technology. This article describes some of the most salient points of our submission and concludes by stressing the need for international leadership on this important topic. WIPO could help fill the current gap on international leadership, …

Why Ricardo's Theory Of Comparative Advantage Regarding Foreign Trade Doesn't Work In Today's Global Economy, Charles W. Murdock

Faculty Publications & Other Works

The theoretical basis for international trade is Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. Paul Samuelson, one of the leading lights in the economics profession in the 20th century, referred to it as one of the most beautiful ideas in economics. Yet, no one seems to have considered its validity in the context of the current global trade environment.

What free-trade advocates have not done is to look at the bases underlying Ricardo’s theory, namely, that capital is loyal to the country of origin and that the value of currencies is responsive to imbalances in trade. This article demonstrates that capital is …

Labor, Trade, And Populism: How Ilo-Wto Collaboration Can Save The Global Economic Order, Sungjoon Cho, Cesar F. Rosado-Marzan

American University Law Review

Populists are trying to take down the global economic order and its institutions. While some of those forces might be fueled by racism, they also play to legitimate social concerns that include massive plant closings and deindustrialization, inadequate skills programs, and lack of decent jobs. Some of these problems also concern the Global South, as workers there face exploitation, unhealthy working conditions, and other social ills caused by global capitalism. In light of these problems, this Article argues that the International Labor Organization (ILO) should design new conventions on lead firm liability and mass layoffs. While other scholars and policymakers …

Development Disasters: Accountability And Remedy In International Development Projects, Kate E. Morrow

American University Law Review

International development projects have a history of creating problems on the ground. Debates about the benefits of top-down development, the need for community buy-in, and the importance of community participation in development have been ongoing and have focused on how to prevent environmental and social harms to local communities. More recently, the conversation has shifted to focus more on the importance of providing remedy for harms, with a focus on development finance institutions (DFIs). DFIs have embraced internal, independent mechanisms to provide a process for accountability when a community suffers harms, but those mechanisms are not externally enforceable. They rely …

The "Poison Pill" In The Usmca: The Erosion Of Wto Principles And Its Implications Under A Us-China Trade War, Gil Lan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States, Canada, and Mexico have ratified a multilateral trade agreement (the "USMCA") that contains a highly unusual provision. This provision (referred to as the 'Poison Pill") is intended to deter the signatories from entering into a free trade agreement (FTA) with any "non-market country." The Poison Pill was introduced by the United States in the wake of the US-China trade war and was most likely directed at deterring Canada from entering into an FTA with China.

This Article argues that the Poison Pill is functionally an expulsion clause (as opposed to a withdrawal clause) which violates the USMCA …

Are Data Privacy Laws Trade Barriers?, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

Taming America's Sugar Rush: A Traffic-Light Label Approach, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Excess added sugar negatively impacts health and can lead to a litany of problems, such as diet-related chronic diseases, e.g., diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and obesity, costing Americans millions in rising medical bills each year. Even more, new studies reveal that individuals with these underlying chronic diseases are at a higher risk of complications from COVID-19 and other viruses compared to those who are deemed healthy. And yet added sugars are difficult to avoid because unlike naturally occurring sugars found in fruits, vegetables, and milk, these sweeteners are added during food processing and preparation.

The problem is that while consumers …

Traditional Knowledge In Taiwan: A Call For Greater Participation Of Indigenous Peoples In The Global Intellectual Property Marketplace, James M. Cooper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the plight of the Aborigines of Taiwan and the legal protections that exist for their Traditional Knowledge. While Taiwan continues to face international isolation with a diminished number of states recognizing the Republic of China as the seat of China, the island's government has taken limited steps to recognize language, cultural, and economic rights of its Indigenous peoples. International law has not been helpful in protecting Traditional Knowledge, but Taiwan could use its vast economic resources and positive track record in protecting some of these rights to further its goals of international recognition. This Article details the …

Reciprocity In China-Us Judgments Recognition, William S. Dodge, Wenliang Zhang

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The conventional wisdom is that China and the United States do not recognize each other's court judgments. But this is changing. A US court first recognized a Chinese judgment in 2009, and a Chinese court first reciprocated in 2017. This Article provides an overview of the enforcement of US judgments in China and Chinese judgments in the United States, noting the similarities and differences in the two countries' systems. In China, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established at the national level and require reciprocity. In the United States, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established …

Fintech And International Financial Regulation, Yesha Yadav

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article shows that Fintech exacerbates the difficulties of standard setting in international financial regulation. Earlier work introduced the "Innovation Trilemma" (the Trilemma). When seeking to balance the goals of achieving market integrity and innovation through clear and simple rulemaking, regulators can--at best--achieve only two out of these three objectives. Fintech's unique characteristics--a reliance on automation and artificial intelligence, novel types of big data, as well as the use of disintermediating financial supply chains comprising a mix of traditional firms as well as technology specialists and newcomers--complicates the application of the Trilemma. Rulemaking struggles to achieve needed clarity where innovative …

Trade's Security Exceptionalism, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

At the core of U.S. trade law is an under-studied structural dichotomy. On the one hand, well-established statutory authorities enable the President to eliminate trade barriers through negotiations with U.S. trading partners. On the other hand, different, lesser-known authorities allow the President to erect trade barriers on an exceptional basis where necessary for U.S. economic security. Rather than thinking of free trade as a source of or tool for economic security as political theorists long have, our law codifies these authorities as though they are in contrast to one another-allowing departures from the free trade norm when security so demands. …

Fair Use, The Internet Age, And Rulifying The Blogosphere, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The fair use analysis in copyright law is, at present, a confusing and sometimes contradictory entanglement of four factors whose outcome is not guaranteed until it comes before a court ex post. Despite the four factors being listed as clearly delineated points in § 107, in reality, these factors have substantial overlap and courts have provided contradictory rulings even in the same circuit. This article builds on the earlier suggestions of Niva Elkin-Koren and Orit Fischman-Afori in suggesting rulification of fair use in specific creative contexts to better distinguish the legal standards for fair use for the population at large. …

The Footprint Of The Chinese Petro-Dragon: The Future Of Investment Law In Transboundary Resources, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Chinese offshore investments in the oil and gas sector around the world are on the rise. Like dragons roaming the seas trying to dominate the tides, Chinese state-owned companies are particularly eager to bid for oil fields in maritime borderlines. The article tells the story of how Chinese state-owned companies are over paying for oil on the US-Mexico boundary to gather experience on how China’s global competitors handle resource development conflicts. My argument is that Chinese participation in transboundary field development fits within a long-term strategy to master international legal regimes. The presence of these petro-dragons in borderlines is an …

The U.S. Posture On Global Access To Medication & The Case For Change, Michael Palmedo, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of including intellectual property rights within the larger agenda of trade. While the marriage between trade and intellectual property was always uncomfortable, COVID-19 exposed the flaws, failures and the inadequacy of the trade agenda to harmonise intellectual property rights, particularly for patents in pharmaceuticals. Typically, the United States through its questionable United States Trade Representative (USTR) process exposed the vulnerabilities of the intellectual property systems of the rest of the world. COVID-19 exposed the manner in which the so-called ‘superior’ intellectual property regime of the US left the country with a weak health-care …

Competition Between State Courts And Private Tribunals, Horst Eidenmüller

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In this essay, I investigate the competition between state courts and private tribunals for dispute resolution. I distinguish between different market segments: business to business ("B2B") and business to consumer ("B2C") transactions and, in each case, small-, mediumand high-stakes disputes. The analysis is informed by a survey of the dispute resolution preferences of "case placers" carried out in 2015. I find that competition between state courts and arbitral tribunals is currently most intense with respect to high-stakes B2B disputes. A significant portion of the total dispute resolution volume in this market segment goes to arbitration. If parties decide to arbitrate, …

Diversity Of Shareholder Stewardship In Asia: Faux Convergence, Gen Goto, Alan K. Koh, Dan W. Puchniak

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the UK adopted the world's first stewardship code in 2010, stewardship codes have proliferated across Asia. Given the UK Code's prominence, it is tempting to assume that every other stewardship code performs the same function as the UK Code. This assumption belies the truth: all these codes--regardless of whether they have in fact drawn inspiration from the UK Code--have taken different trajectories due to each adopting its jurisdiction's distinctive institutional and legal context.

Using empirical evidence and in-depth case studies of stewardship in Japan and Singapore, this Article reveals how any reception of United Kingdom-style stewardship concepts is only …