Résultats 3 ressources
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This dissertation explores the legal issues raised by the participation of private persons in the settlement of international economic disputes, using the potential enlargement of legal standing in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a case study. In the first part, a typology of the special regime of responsibility of WTO Members is drawn, to serve as a "normative bridge" between the twin phenomenon of legalisation of international trade relations and judicialisation of international trade dispute settlement. In the second part, a comparative study of the participation of private persons in the settlement of international economic disputes is conducted, using the doctrine of diplomatic protection from general international law as the analytical framework. This permits an inventory of the various means of private participation in the current practice of States, as well as shedding light on the main systemic problems that are raised, notably in the field of foreign direct investment, where important developments have taken place. In the third part, a study de lege feranda on the enlargement of legal standing in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is undertaken. The study is rooted in the previous analysis of the special regime of responsibility of WTO Members and the comparative survey on the participation of private parties in the settlement of international economic disputes. The dissertation demonstrates that the problems concerning private persons in the current mechanism should not be answered by offering them direct access to the WTO, but rather by refocusing attention on the central role of the State in the mediation of diverging interests in the governance of the world trading system. It proposes as a conclusion that WTO Members should instead look into formalising the process of handling private complaints at the domestic level.
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In the universal history of mankind, the concepts “culture” and “trade” have long denominated two important trains of human aspirations and activities. Notwithstanding their great significance for human life in its entirety, they have been widely regarded as belonging to distinct spheres, which were deemed to be difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile. This perception was also widely reflected in the sphere of law, where their respective fields have been subject to separate regimes based on the logic of their mutual exclusivity and expressed in the concept of res extra commercium. By contrast, the concept of “cultural industries”, which was originally derived from the term Kulturindustrie coined by protagonists of the Frankfurt School introduced a new category of cultural goods and services, which began to strongly challenge the traditional legal separation of cultural from economic considerations. Their novelty as well as their more subtle conceptual implications led to the controversy over the treatment of the dual, i.e. both cultural and economic, nature of such goods and services, which surfaced first during the bilateral trade negotiations between Canada and the United States and soon afterwards during the multilateral Uruguay Round negotiations. In the latter, it was the controversy over the exception culturelle that almost derailed the successful establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since then the problem remains unsolved, and reinforced by the decision of the WTO Panel in the Canada Periodicals Case, the quest for an appropriate conceptual approach allowing for the correct legal answer to the conundrum of culture and trade continues up to this day. In this quest, the present thesis forms an attempt to cast some light on the culture and trade conundrum with a view to isolating options for an appropriate legal response of the multilateral trading system under the WTO. It follows the evolution of the concept of cultural industries, from its birth in the context of critical social theory across the field of political economy to its first appearance in the legal context with the 1988 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. After a short analysis of the cultural industries exemption in the North American context, its focus shifts to the GATT/WTO system of which the basic provisions are discussed in connection with the category of cultural goods and services known as the cultural industries. Their critical analysis yields the present imperfections inherent in the WTO system as a corollary of the fragmentation of the international legal order. Before some final conclusions are drawn, these imperfections are contrasted with the relevant experiences within the context of the process of European integration from the European Economic Community to the European Union.