24 Jan 2025


Global Data Flows x ‘Digital Trade Law’: Instruments, Institutions, and Infrastructures

Craig Atkinson, a WTI Non-Resident Fellow and Research Affiliate at the SMU Centre for Digital Law (CDL), outlines the structure and arguments of an upcoming white paper developed in collaboration with the University of Lucerne's Trade Law 4.0 project. The publication aims to spotlight how the principles of Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) can enable cross-border cooperation and support the evolving field of digital trade law.

Digital trade is at a crossroads, and its future depends on how we navigate the complex challenges of cross-border data flows. A Singapore Management University (SMU) Centre for Digital Law (CDL) article to frame the structure and arguments of the forthcoming white paper 'Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT): Cross-Border Cooperation and Digital Trade on the Edge' in collaboration with the University of Lucerne's Trade Law 4.0 project. 

The white paper contends that the future of digital trade is at a precipice and outcomes hinge on achieving rough consensus and adaptability between States through a dedicated institutional cooperation mechanism for data governance. In the paper’s title, the word ‘edge’ is a triple entendre referring to jurisdictional edges (i.e., borders), the rise of edge-device computing, and issues related to cross-border data flows that put the prospects of digital trade-led development ‘on the edge’.

The article provides an adaptation of the paper's introduction to the multifaceted, but distinct, field of digital trade law and foresees a Singapore-Switzerland research agenda. Outputs like this article, and the forthcoming paper, mark the beginning of concerted bilateral scholarship among the two nations’ trade and technology law research communities.

Article by Craig Atkinson, WTI Non-Resident Fellow and Research Affiliate at Singapore Management University (SMU) Centre for Digital Law (CDL), published on January 16, 2025.