Digital Economy Sustainability And International Economic Law

This volume reviews issues that address the interconnection between digital economy, sustainability and international economic law. It covers a range of topics, including renewables subsidies, AI and corporate governance, digital currency, dispute resolution and new developments in trade law. The selection of chapters intends to illustrate how the digital economic, sustainable development goals and arrangements could influence and potentially shape international economic law, and how they are intertwined in an increasingly connected world. However, as the concepts of digital economy and sustainable development integrate unevenly into different fields of law, the selection focuses on some of the most visible influences in corporate and international trade law in Asia. The chapters in this volume are written by eminent authorities who are devoted to the emerging multidisciplinary fields of international economic law. Contributions include structured sections with a concluding summary and reference list for the benefit of a broad range of readers. This is a timely reference for legal scholars, practitioners and law students seeking updated and critical information from the perspective of an increasingly digital, and sustainability-focused global trade economy.

The digital economy is a new direction in which the modern global economic system is now heading. This book seeks to adapt the digital economy concept to the priorities of humanity, including the implementation of global development goals. The authors develop and substantiate scientific and methodological criteria for assessing the sustainability of the modern digital economy, and offer several concrete recommendations for improving the concept of the digital economy by incorporating global development goals.

This book deals with some aspects of the future shape of the socio-economic order which would be founded on sustainability principles and the role of law therein, instead of on the prevailing capitalist economic order. The volume elaborates in particular on how innovation, a crucial aspect of free-market capitalism and its laws which constitute the current socio-economic order, could result in a more sustainable economy which, in turn, could lead to a more sustainable society. Moreover, the book analyses current developments in financial and economic law and evaluates their perks, risks and sustainability levels. The book contains no less than 11 chapters in which a variety of experts share their state-of-the-art insights regarding specific domains of socio-economic life. As such, the book deals with topics that are at present fully under debate in societies, such as student credit and the dangers it entails, cryptocurrencies and how the law tries to regulate this basically private law instrument, groups of companies under Belgian (company) law, a proposal for improving the international monetary system, and seeds and intellectual property rights, besides various other similar themes. The book forms the latest volume of the book series Economic and Financial Law & Policy – Shifting Insights & Values, and fully complies with the series’ goal of critically examining the legal methods and mechanisms that shape the global free markets and proposing alternatives to them. The book will hereby prove a valuable instrument for all researchers investigating these matters, besides policymakers and their advisers as well as all lawyers active in the field of economic law who look for a new perspective on the subject matters dealt with.

The classification of services in the digital economy proves critical for doing business, but it appears to be a particularly complex regulatory matter that is based upon a manifold set of issues. In the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), when the services classification scheme was drafted in the early 1990s, convergence processes had not unfolded yet and the internet was still in its infancy and not a reality in daily life. Therefore, policy makers are now struggling with the problem of regulating trade in electronic services and are in search of a future-oriented solution for classifying them in multilateral and preferential trade agreements. In late fall 2011, the authors of this study were mandated by the European Union, Delegation to Vietnam, in the context of the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project 3 (MUTRAP 3), to work out a report clarifying the classification of services in the information/digital economy and to assess the impact of any decision regarding the classifications on the domestic and external relations policy of Vietnam, as well as to discuss the relevant issues with local experts during three on-site visits.

This book is both breathtaking in its scope and impressive in its attention to legal and institutional detail in situating developing countries in the evolving body of international economic law. Essays in this volume canvas most important areas of international economic law, including international trade law, international financial regulation, the regulation of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations, foreign aid, the enforcement of human rights standards and core international labour standards on multinational corporations, international enforcement of anti-corruption conventions, international competition law, international intellectual property rights, and international environmental law. A pervasive theme, compellingly developed, in most of these papers is the asymmetric structure of international institutions that generate rules in these various areas, in which developing countries are mostly rule takers, rather than equal participants. The current global financial crisis may provide a welcome opportunity for re-evaluating these institutional asymmetries. In any such re-evaluation, this book will provide a veritable cornucopia of constructive new insights.

In this well researched book, the author explains the digital divide and its repercussions for developed and developing nations. In his view, the overzealous disciplining at the WTO-level of instruments affecting trade notwithstanding, developing countries still have important tools in their hands (intellectual property protection, competition policies, tax regimes) that can help them attract foreign direct investment, a crucial ingredient in reducing the current divide. Borrowing from the institutions that we have seen developed in international economic relations is highly recommended as well. In short, whether the divide will continue to persist or, conversely, whether it will gradually become a historical feature of international relations critically depends on the political will on both sides (of the divide). The author makes a persuasive argument to support his thesis, empirically researched and with strong foundations in theory. Petros C. Mavroidis, Columbia Law School, US and University of Neuch'tel, Switzerland This path-breaking book focuses on the WTO, e-commerce and information communications technologies. It sheds light on how international economic law can be used as a tool in the application of technological processes to facilitate development in developing countries. Rohan Kariyawasam begins by looking predominantly at the rise of international digital networks. He offers an introduction to the networks used in the delivery of electronic products and network-based transactions, and the application of WTO law to the sector. He then suggests how developing countries can use economic law and technology to tap digital markets in the developed world. The book also argues that the advance of basic living standards in some developing countries can be achieved through technological processes, but that this cannot happen without such states paying greater attention to the enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights at home. Picking up the property rights debate (including through bilateral trade), the author argues that ensuring beneficial technology transfer will require balancing foreign investor rights to protect intellectual property. It will also involve restrictions imposed by competition law and WTO surveillance to check the possible misuse of market power by multinational companies. The proposed mixture of measures should, he argues, provide incentives for Foreign Direct Investment. Providing a thorough review of the application of WTO law to the telecommunications sector and the regulation of international digital networks, this book will be of great interest to postgraduate students in international economic law and international development law, as well as those interested in human rights law and technology. It will also appeal to government regulators, NGOs and technologists interested in ICTs and development.

Digital ecosystems formed on the basis of digital platforms are significantly transforming modern reality. Today it is difficult to imagine life without LinkedIn, Facebook, or Amazon. The total income generated by them is estimated at trillions of dollars. Digital platforms are the main driving force of the digital economy. The impact and growth of digital platforms on social and economic processes today is difficult to overestimate. The pandemic has further deepened their influence on society, as almost all social communication and economic activity has moved to online format on digital platforms. The growth of the share of digital platforms in various segments of the economy was so rapid that regulators around the world were not ready for such large-scale transformations. All this has caused a number of crisis phenomena, when IT giants have grown into an independent branch of “power”, which has direct access to the personal and financial data of millions of citizens, and moreover, have the opportunity to directly influence them. This monograph is a unique publication in which, for the first time, a large-scale and sufficiently deep team of experts and scientists from various countries of the world studied in detail the multidimensional phenomenon of the “platform economy” and the measures taken by states to regulate these processes. The book will be interesting to a wide range of readers interested in the problems of the development of digital platforms and the developing branch of law and science – the law of digital platforms.