Unified European Front: The Road towards a European Unitary Patent. EU Centre Singapore Working Paper No. 21, March 2014

For over forty years, European countries have held numerous conferences and signed multiple international agreements aimed at either creating a unitary patent which will be valid in all European countries upon issuance or establishing a specialized European court with jurisdiction over patents. This paper first outlines the need for a unitary patent in the European Union and then chronicles the measures taken to support and milestones toward the creation of a European-wide unitary patent system. The paper then discusses the few problems and pitfalls that have prevented European countries from coming to an agreement on such a patent system. Finally, the paper considers the closely related agreements of ‘Unitary Patent Package’, the challenges facing these agreements and examines if it would finally result in an EU Unitary patent system that benefits one and all.

La contribution des dynamiques internationales formelles au renforcement de la cybersécurité canadienne.

La cybersécurité représente un enjeu important pour les services en charge de la sécurité canadienne à l’ère de l’expansion des Menaces Persistantes Avancées (MSP ou cybercrimes de type 1). Ces crimes se déroulent essentiellement dans le cyberespace, ce qui implique l’adoption de mesures spécifiques adéquates à l’environnement numérique, notamment à l’épreuve de son ubiquité. Le gouvernement canadien a pour sa part publié certaines mesures de défense passive et active dont la plus connue est la stratégie canadienne de cybersécurité. Puisque le cyberespace n’est pas limité territorialement, l’autorité canadienne a conclu plusieurs partenariats internationaux d’où ressortent des mesures bilatérales et multilatérales de protection et de renforcement de la cybersécurité. Toutefois, ces diverses mesures nationales et internationales ne tracent pas de cadre légal précisant la nature et le régime juridique des MSP; précisions sans lesquelles l’adoption de règles au plan national serait improductive. Considérant que l’espace numérique est international, il appelle la mise en place de mesures applicables à l’échelle universelle. Or, au plan international, il n’existe aucun texte à valeur légale spécifique à l’espèce. Ainsi, à la question de savoir, quels textes légaux pourraient s’appliquer, il s’est avéré que le jus ad bellum et la Convention européenne contre le cybercrime (Convention de Budapest) apportaient d’incontournables éléments de réponse. D’une part, le jus ad bellum permet de définir la catégorie d’acte dans laquelle peuvent être rangées les MSP, et d’autre part, la Convention de Budapest permet de définir les infractions informatiques commises par les différents acteurs en cause, les procédures d’investigation appropriées et les mécanismes utiles à la coopération internationale. Bien que les éléments ressortis de ces ententes internationales soient utiles à l’adoption d’un corps de règles internationales uniformes, les intérêts étatiques divergents constituent des obstacles de taille.

United States statutes at large : containing the laws and concurrent resolutions ... and reorganization plan, amendment to the Constitution, and proclamations.

Beginning in 1950 treaties and international agreements issued by the Secretary of State as United States treaties and other international agreements.

Evidências empíricas na proteção do investimento direto estrangeiro em Angola e o sistema de solução de controvérsias

Considerando que houve uma intensificação no fluxo de investimento estrangeiro direto (IED) tanto no mundo quanto especialmente em Angola nos últimos anos, é a intenção deste trabalho explorar quais ferramentas outorgam ao investidor privado um sistema de proteção do seu investimento bem como sistema institucionalizado de solução de controvérsias (e.g. ICSID) por meio de Acordos de Proteção e Promoção de Investimentos (APPIs) firmados por Angola comparados à proteção que poderá ser garantida aos investidores privados brasileiros na ausência de tais documentos legais. A pergunta inerente a este trabalho é, portanto, como certo grau de proteção é outorgado aos investidores brasileiros em Angola tendo em vista as atuais correntes e tendências no direito internacional do investimento e o fluxo crescente de investimento brasileiro em Angola.

WTO oriented telecommunications reform in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Socialist Republic of Vietnam's reform process in the telecommunications sector - obligations imposed on Vietnam by the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) - the regulatory framework required by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the associated, telecommunications-specific WTO agreements - institutional and political problems that may hinder full implementation of these international obligations.

Export processing zones and growth triangle development: The case of the BIMP-EAGA, Southeast Asia

Exorts processing zones (EPZs) and growth triangles have been two common Asian initiatives to increase wealth and regional competitiveness in the world economy. Since they are seldom analysed jointly, this paper investigates their mutuality in the development process. Taking the problematic case of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) triangle, we explore the role of EPZs in enhancing regional collaboration, competitiveness, and domestic linkages. Despite the triangle's weak economic complementarities, its processing zones are found capable of advancing development by furthering opportunities in regionalisation/localisation of production. Latterly, trade and investment liberalisation within ASEAN raises broad questions about the rationale of EPZs and growth triangles. Zone-triangle nexuses will require rethinking as, under different regulatory conditions, the zones compete more directly across ASEAN and also with global rivals. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dynamics of investment negotiations between China and Japan : the China-Japan-Korea trilateral investment treaty and beyond

The investment agreement relationship between China and Japan is complex. The many intersecting and overlapping agreements can rightly be described as a "noodle bowl of agreements." The 1989 bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between China and Japan still stands. Japan can also free-ride on the negotiation outcome of China's BITs and free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries by using the most-favored-nation (MFN) provision in the 1989 China-Japan BIT, which does not contain regional economic integration organization (REIO) exception rules. However, because the China-Japan BIT does not have investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), it may face implementation problems. The China-Japan-Korea trilateral investment treaty (CJK TIT), in force since 2014, made improvements upon the 1989 BIT, but Japan is not entirely satisfied with the outcome. For Japan, pre-establishment national treatment (NT) and prohibition of various types of performance requirements are the most important negotiation items, but the CJK TIT insufficiently addressed those problems. Moreover, because the CJK TIT has MFN provisions with an REIO exception rule, better access to investment markets brought about by future FTAs such as the China-Korea FTA and the EU-China FTA cannot be imported into CJK TIT. Hence, in the long run, Japan needs to pursue an FTA investment chapter with China that covers both MFN and ISDS.

Gravity with multiple tariff schemes

This study contributes to the literature on gravity analysis by explicitly incorporating both most favored nation (MFN) rates and regional trade agreement (RTA) rates. Our gravity equation considers the fact that all exporters do not necessarily utilize RTA schemes, even when exporting to their RTA partners. We apply the tariff line–level data on worldwide trade to this gravity equation. As a result, we find a significantly negative coefficient for the (log) ratio of RTA rates to MFN rates. From the quantitative point of view, we show that in the first year of the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership (i.e., 2015), exports from Australia to Japan are expected to increase by 6% compared with the exports in 2014. Furthermore, it is shown that, based on the subsequent reduction in RTA rates, the magnitude of the trade-creation effect through tariff reductions gradually rises over time.

The emerging ASEAN approach to mutual recognition : a comparison with Europe, trans-Tasman, and North America

Existing studies on mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) are mostly based on the European experience. In this paper, we will examine the ongoing attempts to establish a mutual recognition architecture in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and seek to explain the region's unique approach to MRAs, which can be classified as a "hub and spoke" model of mutual recognition. On one hand, ASEAN is attempting to establish a quasi-supranational ASEAN-level mechanism to confer "ASEAN qualification" effective in the entire ASEAN region. On the other hand, ASEAN MRAs respect members' national sovereignty, and it is national authorities, not ASEAN institutions, who have the ultimate power to approve or disapprove the supply of services by ASEAN qualification holders. Such a mixed approach to mutual recognition can be best understood as a centralized mechanism for learning-by-doing, rather than centralized recognition per se.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE OPTICAL SCANNING OF COPYRIGHT

Digitalization is, nowadays, a very important mechanism to help information get where it’s needed, thanks specially to the universality of internet access. However, it carries within the responsibility of making a good use of it, in means of copyright, guarding the existing legislation in Costa Rica and the international agreements in which the country takes part. Legislation allows, under certain premises, the use of digitalization. Nevertheless, it’s necessary to define the parameters in which these premises will be applied, so it’s used correctly.

CONCERNS REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT IN THE INTERNET

The advent of the World Network(Net) Internet and the use of the technology in the digital environment raised new challenges to the author's copyright. These worries were considered in the last international agreements, so that the warning is not true of those who postulate that the Internet is a " territory of nobody ", where the works are unprotected completely. To educate on the topic of the protection of the author's copyright and to provide with resources the instances(authorities) in charge of the observance of these rights looks like an ineluctable task.