Fluctuation in the price of oil has been an international concern for decades, because oil is the primary export and main economic driver for many States. OPEC as an international organization is practicing its role in controlling oil prices and oil market under the rules and norms of international law. In 2014, the price of oil decreased tremendously in a way that shocked the international market. OPEC tried to stem the losses and prevent prices from falling even further, and tried to facilitate international law in the current crisis. World markets were further shocked when OPEC announced that it would not cut production, and that the market would be supplied by the usual average amount of oil exports. In contrast, WTO cut its global trade in an attempt to shore up prices in the international markets, since low oil prices affected international trade as well. In this article, I analyze the oil crisis that hit the world from 2014 to the early year of 2016 period, and the role of international organizations such as OPEC and WTO in facing international economic crises, as well as the role of international politics to assure the implementation of law.

Although there are many international treaties and conventions offering protection for generic human rights that implicitly refer to older persons, these relevant provisions are scattered, porous and lack of practical operability, which fail to provide explicit, tailored, comprehensive and binding protection to older persons. In addition, there are some soft law provisions that guide the application of law and add to the overall protection of older people. However none of the documents contains legally binding obligations. Therefore, the protection of the rights of the elderly must be formulated as the “hard law” which defines the responsibilities of the state and clarifies the implementation mechanism at the international and domestic level. In other words, a legal system ought to be established to comprehensively protect the rights of the elderly, which is just the Convention on the Rights of the Elderly. This article attempts to present a proposal to create the right system of the Convention, which represents the core of this potential international treaty.

The sustainable development of outer space demands the protection of intellectual property in outer space. However, it worth noting that the intellectual property international treaties have not explicitly regulated in their provisions the issue of intellectual property protection in outer space, neither the provisions of the five outer space treaties explicitly address the legal issue. One suspicious rationale resulting in this legal status is the theoretical territoriality paradox between the legal regimes of outer space and intellectual property. This article aims to unveil the theoretical territoriality paradox by comparing the two legal regimes of outer space and intellectual property. It then moves to argue that the paradox is proved to be a theoretical problem since the legal value of Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty elaborately reconcile the theoretical paradox and practically provides a self-contained mechanism that would permit guaranteed levels of intellectual property rights protection in outer space.

As the most frequent and most successful user of the dispute settlement system of the WTO, the US has welcomed judicial clarifications by WTO dispute settlement bodies whenever they confirmed legal claims of the US. Yet, the Trump administration increasingly rejects judicial findings against the US trade restrictions as violating the WTO prohibitions of “add(ing) to or diminish(ing) the rights and obligations provided in the covered agreements.” This contribution criticizes the illegal US ‘blocking’ of the WTO Appellate Body and the underlying, hegemonic nationalism and protectionist interest group politics. It suggests that reasonable and responsible citizens benefitting from the WTO trading, legal and dispute settlement systems must resist illegal power politics, for instance, by supporting a WTO Adjudication@me.too “enlightenment campaign” pressuring democratic institutions and governments to protect rule of law and judicial remedies in international trade as prescribed by parliaments when they approved the WTO Agreement.

The US has huge interests in Hong Kong. In 1992, a few years before China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, the US adopted the U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992. The keynote of the Act is to enhance the cooperation with and maintain the treatment to Hong Kong. This tune has changed in the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, which is obviously the response of the US to widespread protests in Hong Kong arising from the Extradition Bill proposed by the Government of Hong Kong SAR. The new law includes several negative elements. It marks a change in the US policy towards Hong Kong and furthermore represents a change in the US policy towards China. The new law should not merely be understood as the US’s support for democracy and human rights in Hong Kong. Instead, it should be considered as a major leverage which the US may maneuver to engage a rising China.

Donald Trump’s methods of operating and conducting national security and foreign policy are exactly the same as they would be if he was engaged in real estate transactions and deals. To Donald Trump, trade policy, foreign policy, and national security policy are transactions and zero-sum games. My thesis is straightforward: One can draw a straight line from Donald Trump’s ruthless mode of operating in the contentious world of New York real estate to his operations on the world stage today. From Queens to the world stage, there is a straight line from using threats and litigation to avoid commercial and contractual obligations to using threats and litigation in conducting the US foreign and trade policy. Especially as to policies pertaining to the World Trade Organization and the US–China trade relations. His weaponization of tariffs and economic sanctions is now being wielded as a principal tool of the US foreign policy for the first time since the early 1930s.

The recent fentanyl dispute between China and the US adds the academic value to the efforts to examine the respective legal regime of public international law and the WTO law on narcotics trafficking. On the one hand, public international law offers a comprehensive framework to address narcotics trafficking but as demonstrated by Chinese proofs, its function is undermined by weak enforcement. On the other hand, there exist some useful mechanisms in the WTO law to combat narcotics trafficking but their weaknesses can also be easily spotted. More importantly, the alarm of the global threat of illicit trade is ringing, which requires our raising awareness to it. Recently, the UNCTAD and the OECD have already taken the initiative to discuss the collective actions, by means of conferences or reports, to deal with illicit trade. In the long run, it will be indispensable to establish an operational governance framework on the international level to effectively curb illicit trade.

Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has been involved in 21 cases as complainant, 44 as respondent, and 179 as a third party. However, China-related cases have not overburdened the WTO dispute settlement system. Instead, China has assisted in the development of international trade law through the creative interpretations of different provisions achieved in the WTO dispute settlement proceedings. This article seeks to provide an overview of China’s participation in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and contribution to the rules over the past decade. In doing so, the article not only highlights the jurisprudential and doctrinal contributions of some of the critical disputes, but also examines the role of various interest groups and stakeholders in shaping China’s dispute settlement activity. Overall, the article provides an overview of China’s WTO dispute settlement activities and its role in assisting the development of international trade law.

Before the Republican era, the Qing dynasty had taken on initiatives to interact with the international governmental system imposed by Europeans. In particular, at the 1907 Hague Peace Conference, Chinese diplomats took on singular approaches to defend China’s interests within the international legal framework of the time. Their actions demonstrate increased understanding of the Western international legal understanding, as well as clarity over the limits to the integration to the “civilised class of nations.” Chinese diplomats’ interactions demonstrate the hybrid intellectual space, which was emerging, integrating traditional Chinese understanding of its cosmology with European-inherited concepts of universality and civilisation. Their actions also demonstrate the country’s volition to engage and interact with a non-Chinese universal system, as opposed to their more passive participation at the 1899 Hague Conference. As such, the Qing had already laid the foundations for a modern dialogue between the West and the Chinese in international diplomacy, prior to the Versailles Treaty in 1919.

With the growing concern of the international community about the negative spillover effects of SOEs on trade, reaching a consensus among different stakeholders has become increasingly urgent. This paper argues that strengthening a redefined competition policy is a feasible alternative, or at least a complementary option to the existing trade framework. The reasons are as follows: (a) surrounding SOEs is not only trade-related, but also competition-related; (b) the existing SOE disciplines have defects when it comes to dealing with competition distortion effects; and (c) characteristics of competition policy make it easier to reach a “maximum common divisor” among all parties. Accordingly, competition policy needs to be redefined and pursued from an international and domestic level. It is necessary to strengthen the fundamental position of competition policy in China by integrating it into SOE reform measures, advancing the implementation of the Fair Competition Review System, and promoting the construction of the competitive neutrality system.

Chinese courts’ attitudes toward domestic surrogacy have appeared to soften and are inclined to protect the best interests of children and the legal rights of intended parents. However, many problems remain unsolved in transnational surrogacy cases, including the validity of a contract, parentage or guardianship determination, citizen conferral, and household registration. In this article, transnational surrogacy is analyzed from the perspective of private international law, particularly jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition of foreign judgment on parental relationships and foreign public documents. In addition, some specific cases, such as transnational surrogacy for same-sex partners and transnational surrogacy without the consent of intended parents, are discussed and analyzed in detail.

In order to facilitate its Belt and Road Initiative, China has issued dozens of policy documents and detailed guidelines, improved its legal and supervisory systems, and taken full advantage of all existing cooperation mechanisms at the bilateral, regional, sub-regional and multilateral levels. The current cooperation mechanism is characterized by non-systemicity, which makes it dependent upon other existing regional cooperation mechanisms. In fact, it has no uniform institutional structure, nor any dispute settlement mechanism. Although this non-systematic approach is based in China’s successful experience in opening up to outside influence and in the flexibility that enabled its rise to global prominence, this very flexibility also poses challenges to the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative by leaving it open to conflict with existing regional cooperation mechanisms. Therefore, to ensure the success of the Belt and Road Initiative, China should undertake a systematic plan for implementation by establishing a comprehensive legal framework; streamlining paths to economic cooperation; and institutionalizing the cooperation mechanism with a formal dispute settlement mechanism at its core.

During the last quarter-century, globalisation processes affected changes in the world economy in the form of intensifying competition in the international and internal markets. The result is the creation of a global marketplace that is mostly indifferent to national borders and governmental influences. This development has generated widespread interest in competitiveness. Competitiveness affects international relations, especially nowadays, given the changing position of the global leaders and the growth of new economic powers such as China. China has come a long way and has the opportunity to be a global leader in several required fields that will be the cornerstones of global growth in the next decades. Led by China, emerging economies are increasing their share in the worldwide economy and intensifying competition in nearly all sectors. It creates new threats and challenges for players in the global economy, and growing competitiveness must be efficient. The article evaluates the Chinese competitiveness in comparison with the World Trade Organization members by the Data Envelopment Analysis in the pre-in-post crisis period and considering the Fourth Industrial Revolution shifting humanity into a new phase.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing may occur on the high seas or within a national jurisdiction. Several factors were identified as contributing to the occurrence of IUU fishing activities, among which is poor governance marked by limited and overlapping enforcement by related authorities. With very limited regional enforcement bodies and the absence of a regional multilateral agreement, IUU fishing is difficult to overcome. It means that issues relating to overfishing and other fishing conflicts like foreign vessels intrusions and use of illegal fishing methods will continue to be a problem. This paper identifies the Malaysia’s legal framework governing IUU fishing, as well as relevant international and regional laws and policies. The paper also discusses the devastating effects of IUU fishing to the global fish stocks and national economy. Although the existing framework is considered comprehensive, it recommends further stringent and fair law enforcement to combat IUU fishing in Malaysia’s waters.

Transnational money laundering is a global issue that requires international solutions. This paper examines the concept of Free Movement of Judgments which should be realized in the legal integration process of the ASEAN in order to overcome the negative impacts of money laundering. This research will analyze the regulation for criminalizing money laundering in the ASEAN and compare it with the criminal cooperation in the European Union. The ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLAT 2004) is expected to be an alternative to an extradition treaty. If adopting the Free Movement of Judgements, judicial decisions of an ASEAN member country regarding transnational crimes of money laundering would be recognized and implemented in other member’s jurisdiction reciprocally. This adoption is expected to be an effective solution to overcome impunity in cross-border money laundering actors.

Tensions are high between Korea and Japan as a result of Japan’s export restrictions on three essential semiconductor materials exported to Korea and the removal of South Korea from their White List of countries. The Abe Administration announced that these measures were necessary to “ensure non-proliferation of weapons-related materials.” However, it is widely suspected that these measures were adopted as a retaliation against the Korean Supreme Court’s decision recognizing compensation for the forced labor victims during the Japanese occupation period. The Korean government filed a complaint concerning these measures at the WTO DSB for resolution under international law. In this research, the authors will critically analyze Japan’s export restrictions under international law to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the current conflict. This paper will tackle the relevant issues under the WTO/GATT regulations and the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement to address the issue of who violated international law.

Japan has argued that its recently introduced export control measures toward the Republic of Korea (ROK) are consistent with relevant international guidelines. The ROK has rejected this view and claims that Japan’s measures are inconsistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) law. If a WTO Panel is established to adjudicate this matter, the national security exception clause, specifically Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994), is likely to be invoked. Russia–Measures concerning Traffic in Transit is one of the few cases in which a WTO Panel has rendered a decision on this article. In general, the doctrine of precedents does not strictly apply; however, it hints that the Panel may require objective arguments to be provided despite the clause’s “self-judging” nature. On its face, Japan appears to have a stronger case, but the Panel would nonetheless be required to make a difficult decision.

The resolution process of PPI scandal was led and driven by the UK’s FCA- financial regulator based on powers stipulated in Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. FCA made rules requiring financial institutions concerned to assess mis-selling claims of PPI holders and pay redress to them if mis-selling was found. The opt-out class action, in contrast, is not likely to handle finance mis-selling collectively because commonality requirement is not easily satisfied. The PPI resolution process overcame this problem by assigning the investigation and assessment of individual aspects of the disputes to the financial institutions concerned. This approach is equitable in that financial institutions which are liable to the scandal bears the time and pecuniary cost instead of relying on public resources of courts as in the litigation. The regulator-led resolution can be helpful in designing collective resolution system of finance mis-selling which is characterized as mass victims with small damages.