Lisa C. Toohey

China and the World Trade Organization: The First Decade

By the end of 2011, China will have been a member of the World Trade Organization (the WTO) for a decade. While China has undergone dramatic changes to implement commitments contained in its Protocol of Accession, debate continues as to whether China has adequately complied with its obligations under the WTO Agreements in both letter and spirit. Some of this debate remains in the political arena, where China is censured over such issues as currency controls and or equality of access for foreign firms like Google; however, it is in the legal arena, and specifically within the WTOs Dispute Settlement Body, that some of the most controversial issues are raised, both against and by China. This article analyses Chinas record of disputes in the WTO since its accession in 2001.

Accession as Dialogue: Epistemic Communities and the World Trade Organization

Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is viewed as a major step in the development of a state, and the commitments made by acceding states are often interpreted as a symbolic commitment to international economic and political community. However, as a subject of scholarship, WTO accession is under-theorized – there has been no sustained academic attempt to build a theory that accounts for the complexity of the accession process. Traditional, positivist approaches can point to increasingly onerous terms of accession, but fail to probe past Article XIIs one-dimensional concept of ‘the acceding state’ negotiating with ‘the WTO’. This perspective dislocates the accession process from the broader political, economic, and legal reforms that involve both state and non-state actors. This article examines the role of these actors as epistemic communities, and argues that these epistemic communities engage in a series of dialogues about the nature of law and the legal system in the acceding state.

Understanding the information experiences of parents involved in negotiating post-separation parenting arrangements

The paper presents findings from a study into the information experiences of people needing to make post-separation parenting arrangements. Data was collected from 20 participants, through in-depth, semi-structured, telephone interviews. Thematic analysis identified five major themes: Following, Immersion, Interpersonal, History and Context which depict the information experiences of the participants. The findings can be used as an evidence base to inform the design and delivery of support and services provided by government agencies and other community groups supporting the legal information needs of individuals and families. The work extends current understandings of information experience as an object of study in the information science discipline.

Dispute Settlement in the TPP and the WTO: Which Way Will Asian TPP Members Turn?

Assuming that the TPP will eventually enter into force with its current dispute settlement architecture intact, the Agreement will increase the dispute settlement options for its members, with most having a range of multilateral, bilateral, and regional dispute mechanisms at their disposal in any given dispute. However, where a choice of forum exists, a number of considerations arise for a complaining member, including legal and political dimensions. This Chapter examines the dispute resolution provisions contained in the TPP, evaluating the extent to which they represent change and innovation for the TPP’s membership, and then considers the impact of the TPP on the dispute settlement architecture already available in the Asian region. While it is clear that there are a number of features that will enhance the efficacy of the dispute settlement process for, other features may make the TPP’s mechanisms less attractive forum, particularly for the Asian Members of the TPP. Thus, this chapter argues, where a choice of forum exists, complainant members are likely to continue to use the WTO dispute settlement system in at least the near future.

When ‘Failure’ Indicates Success: Understanding Trade Disputes between ASEAN Members

The existing literature on ASEAN’s trade disputes focuses on whether the organization will indeed develop into a rules-based association, or whether political methods will continue to be used in preference to legal principle. The conclusion, generally from outside observers, is that if ASEAN seeks to prioritize economic integration and increased cooperation on trade liberalization, it will likely be forced to become more ‘legalized’. The discussion thus tends to revolve around legal mechanisms that will best achieve this end-point. The assumption that underpins the existing literature is that it is an inevitability, or perhaps simply a matter of time, that the available dispute settlement mechanisms will be used by the ASEAN members. However, this Chapter argues that Western authors need to rethink their analysis of ASEAN, and that the key questions should be framed differently. It argues that across the range of major ASEAN disputes – those concerning trade and territory – the ASEAN members have shown clear preference for quiet self-resolution or external adjudication rather than internal adjudication, not just in relation to trade disputes, but also in relation to territorial disputes. More importantly ‘legalism’, within the ASEAN context, does not mean referring disputes to institutionalized and procedurally sophisticated adjudicatory mechanisms, but rather relying on the legal rights and obligations established by the ASEAN agreements in a substantive sense. Whereas the WTO has the benefit of being a self-contained regime for trade, in ASEAN trade must cohabit the same forum as other, more explosive, political concerns such as territorial integrity and the physical security of the state. ASEAN members rely instead on the ASEAN Way‘, which holds that progress can be made through consensus and discussion, not confrontation. Paradoxical as it may sound to the adversarially-inclined Western trade lawyer, the absence of ASEAN trade law cases may actually be an indicator of the system‘s success.