Legal system of the world trade organization and electronic commerce

Abstract

The paper discusses several important issues related to the regulating of electronic commerce and their incorporation into the WTO legal system. First of all, the subject of the study is the relevance of the existing legal framework for this new area, with a special focus on the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Within that framework, the approach to the practice of dispute resolution in the given segment is considered. The paper also discusses the institutional efforts undertaken in the WTO with the aim of regulating electronic commerce. In particular, some of the possible courses of action are systematized and critically analyzed and suggestions are made for realistically feasible solutions to the problem of legal regulation in the given area. The paper concludes that electronic trade has posed a complex legal challenge to the WTO, which must be answered urgently and as comprehensively as possible. However, the existing legal rules of this organization are only partially applicable to the given area. The attempts to extend the relevance of the given rules through the practice of dispute resolution in WTO have a limited scope. On the other hand, the activities on institutional improvement through negotiations in the WTO are blocked due to the different positions of the member countries. Therefore, we are of the opinion it necessary to create a realistic approach that would be widely acceptable, and which would combine the development of the most general rules, while simultaneously resolving practical issues related to electronic commerce.

Keywords

• legal system
• world trade organization
• electronic commerce
• legal challenges
• goods/merchandise
• services
• possible courses of action