1 Jul 2017    Books/ Book Chapters
Cottier, Thomas


Technology and the Law of International Trade Regulation

Chapter by Thomas Cottier in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford, and Karen Yeung (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology, published by Oxford University Press (2017), pp. 1017-1051

With regards to global trade, where new technologies impact both on what is traded and how, this chapter sketches the current regulatory landscape and projects the implications of emerging technologies for future regulatory approaches. While the regulation of technology mainly rests with domestic law, it is international trade law that addresses problems of regulatory diversity, overcomes unnecessary barriers to international trade and investment, and articulates common standards. Apart from general principles of non-discrimination and transparency, technology is particularly addressed by rules of intellectual property protection and by technical regulations and standards for industrial and nutritional products. For international trade law to respond to the challenges of legitimacy and democratic accountability, there need to be new approaches to regulatory cooperation and coherence, operating within a proper framework of multi-level governance that harnesses the process of globalization which is much driven by technological advances.

 

 

Technology and the Law of International Trade Regulation