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International Trade and Internet Freedom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2017

Anupam Chander*
Affiliation:
Yale Law School; University of California, Davis, School of Law

Abstract

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Type
The Politics of the Internet
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2008

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References

* These are, for the most part, transcripts from the conference, reviewed and revised by the individual participants and compiled by Professor Jacqueline Lipton, JDL14@case.edu. Mr. McCullagh did not submit remarks for the Proceedings.

The panel would like to thank Gerardo Badillo who served as reporter for this panel.

1 General Agreement on Trade in Services, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex Ib, Legal Instruments-Results of the Uruguay Round, 1869 U.N.T.S. 183, 33 I.L.M. 1167 (1994) [hereinafter Gats].

2 Chander, Anupam, Whose Republic?, 69 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1479 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Julian Dibbell, The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer, N.Y. Times Mag., June 17, 2007, available at <http://www.nytimes. com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmerst.html?ex=1339732800&en=1676d344608cb590&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss> (describing Chinese workers who earn a livelihood by gathering gold in a virtual world). The video of the workplace and dormitory space accompanying the New York Times Magazine story is especially revealing.

4 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights art. 19(2), Mar. 23, 1976, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (hereinafter ICCPR).

5 Hannum, Hurst, The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law, 25 Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 287, 290 (1995/96)Google Scholar; see also Henkin, Louis, The Universal Declaration at 50 and the Challenge of Global Markets, 25 Brook. J. Int’l L. 17 (1999)Google Scholar.

6 Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 735 (2004) (“[Although the Covenant does bind the United States as a matter of international law, the United States ratified the Covenant on the express understanding that it was not self-executing and so did not itself create obligations enforceable in the federal courts.”).

7 ICCPR, art. 19(3).

8 GATS, Art. III.

9 GATS, Art. XVI (market access), XVII (national treatment).

10 See Wu, Tim, The World Trade Law of Censorship and Internet Filtering, 7 Chi. J. Int’l L. 263, 281-4 (2006)Google Scholar.

11 Indeed, a market access commitment might be violated by a decree that barred all blogging sites, both foreign and domestic. A blanket prohibition of all online gambling, whether foreign or domestic, was the basis for a market access commitment in the Antigua-United States dispute discussed below.

12 GATS, Art. XIV (a).

13 Appellate Body Report, United StatesMeasures Affecting the Cross-border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services, ¶¶ 283, 323-27, WT/DS285/AB/R (Apr. 7, 2005).

14 Id. at ¶ 308.

15 Somini Sengupta, You Won’t Read it Here First: India Curtails Access to Blogs, N.Y. Times, July 19, 2006, at A6; Brad Stone, Pakistan Cuts Access to YouTube Worldwide, N.Y. Times, Feb. 26, 2008, at C3; Wikipedia Blocking of Wikipedia in Mainland China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Wikipedia_in_mainland_China (last visited June 17, 2008). Pakistan’s rerouting of requests for YouTube to an Internet black hole had extraterritorial impact, causing the temporary outage of YouTube for many in the region.

16 Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, H.R. 275, 110th Cong., 1st Sess. (2007).

17 Anti-corruption conventions offer one model. Wanlin, Lori Ann, The Gap between Promise and Practice in the Global Fight Against Corruption , 6 Asper Rev. Int’l Bus. & Trade L. 209 (2006)Google Scholar.

18 China - Measures Affecting Trading Rights and Distribution Services for Certain Publications and Audiovisual Entertainment Products, WT/DS363/1, Apr. 16, 2007; China - Measures Affecting Financial Information Services and Foreign Financial Information Suppliers, WT/DS373/1, Mar. 5, 2008 (U.S. request for consultations); China -Measures Affecting Financial Information Services and Foreign Financial Information Suppliers, WT/DS372/1, Mar. 5, 2008 (E.U. request for consultations).