Mark Wu

Piercing China's Corporate Veil: Open Questions from the New Company Law

In 2006, China undertook a major overhaul of its legal framework governing corporations by implementing a new Company Law. Much of the previous Company Law was revised or eliminated, with many new provisions added. This development was much anticipated by Chinese and foreigners alike, as China’s previous corporate law was unable to keep pace with its fastgrowing economy. One of the highlights of the new Company Law is its formal establishment of the concept of “piercing the corporate veil” in Chinese law. The concept of piercing the corporate veil is a longstanding feature of the corporate law of capitalist economies. An important corporate form in such economies is the limited liability corporation (LLC), a key attribute of which is that shareholders are not personally liable for corporate debts in excess of their investment in the LLC. Creditors seeking payment of debts or tort victims seeking redress generally can reach only the corporation’s assets, not those of its shareholders. At times, however, courts ignore this corporate fiction and treat a corporation’s debt as the debt of the corporation’s shareholders. In doing so, courts “pierce the corporate veil.”

Safeguards and the Perils of Preferential Trade Agreements: Dominican Republic – Safeguard Measures

The legal-economic implications of how WTO members apply an import-restricting safeguard measure become more complex in light of the increasing web of trade concessions undertaken through their preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in addition to their WTO commitments. This paper examines a number of complex issues that arose in the WTO litigation between five new PTA partners through the Dominican Republic – Safeguard Measures disputes. First, we highlight the difficulties in assessing the extent to which safeguards imposed following a PTA are the result of PTA concessions relative to developments that pre-date or are otherwise unrelated to the PTA. Second, we analyze the WTO Panel decision through which a number of previously unresolved questions in the WTO’s safeguards jurisprudence arose. Third, we identify how safeguard-related provisions within a PTA may themselves give rise to constraints that subsequently affect how a country may apply safeguards made available under the WTO Agreements, and we describe some implications for PTA design and negotiation. Finally, we examine the broader implications that arise from the interplay of PTAs, safeguards, and dispute settlement in light of the availability of both relatively substitutable policy instruments and dispute resolution forums.

Overuse Injuries in the Pediatric Population

Athletic overuse injuries are becoming an increasingly common entity in the active pediatric population. The prevalence of these injuries may be attributed to the combination of an underdeveloped musculoskeletal system, increased participation in competitive sport at a younger age, and increased duration and intensity of training. Many of these injuries may go unreported and/or undiagnosed, as they do not all result in time lost from sports, and are not always appreciated on imaging. Left unrecognized, untreated, or poorly managed, overuse injuries can have long-term health consequences for young athletes. The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of the most recent literature pertaining to the diagnosis and management of several common pediatric overuse injuries. These specific injuries include Little League shoulder and elbow, osteochondritis dissecans of the elbow, stress fractures of the lumbar spine (spondylolysis), femoral neck and tibial shaft stress fractures, Osgood-Schlatter disease, and Sever disease.

Antidumping and Strategic Industrial Policy: Tit-for-Tat Trade Remedies and the China-X-Ray Equipment Dispute

This article examines the relationship between antidumping duties and strategic industrial policy. We argue that the dynamic between the two instruments is more complex and elaborate than that offered by the conventional account. We use the recent China-X-Ray Equipment dispute as a case study to show that linkage between the two instruments may not be the consequence of a government-led policy but instead a result of firm-driven responses to an industrial policy. This in turn may lead to antidumping tit-for-tat behavior between WTO members. We also analyze how WTO litigation serves as a means to alter the payoff and discuss the implications and unresolved questions that remain following the China-X-Ray Equipment ruling by the WTO.

Understanding Agricultural Price Range Systems as Trade Restraints: Peru–Agricultural Products

An agricultural price range system (PRS) aims to stabilize local prices in an open economy via the use of import duties that vary with international prices. The policy is inherently distortionary and welfare-reducing for a small open economy, at least according to the canonical economic model. We offer an explanation for why a government concerned with national welfare may nevertheless implement such a policy when faced with risk aversion and imperfect insurance markets. We also highlight open questions arising out of the Peru – Agricultural Products dispute for the WTOs Appellate Body to address in order to clarify how a PRS consistent with WTO rules could be designed. Finally, we discuss the possibility that a WTO member might resort to a free trade agreement (FTA) to preserve its flexibility to implement a PRS and how an FTA provision of this sort ought to be treated in WTO litigation.

China's Export Restrictions and the Limits of WTO Law

In recent years, China has enacted export restrictions on a range of minerals and other raw materials. They include export quotas, export duties, export licenses, and other administrative actions. Although such export restrictions have already been found to be inconsistent with Chinas WTO obligations, the practice persists. This article advances an explanation for why this is the case. It argues that the problem lies with the lack of retrospective remedies in WTO dispute settlement. Consequently, China is able to breach its WTO obligations temporarily with minimal consequence. Although such restrictions may have negative consequences for upstream extraction firms, China is able to implement the restrictions because several upstream firms are state-owned enterprises. As a result, China is able to utilize export restrictions on minerals and other raw materials effectively to foster the development of strategic emerging industries downstream. Given existing negotiating standoffs and domestic political constraints, this article suggests that it is unlikely that any potential WTO legal reforms will be enacted any time soon to address this problem.