Overview
2006 - 2007
Amid the burgeoning of regional economic integration (FTAs, EPAs, customs unions) since the second half of the 1990s, there are some aspects that require scrutiny. This phenomenon has been arousing intense interest in many fields of the social sciences, but generally the analysis of its legal aspects has lagged behind. Similarly to the WTO, regional economic integration is conducted with large amounts of legal documentation, and this constitutes a trade "agreement" pursuant to GATT Article 24. Accordingly, legal analysis must be a core policy tool with regard to the design of the systems and to their operation after they have come into being. On this basis, in our research we make issue-specific comparative studies of the systems in the major cases of regional economic integration that have been in force up till now, and elucidate the classification of the designs of legal systems in regional economic integration, and their special characteristics. In this way we will show what options are possible for orderly integration from a legal perspective, and how these can aid the effectiveness of economic integration.
Until December 31, 2007
Major Research Results
2007
RIETI Discussion Papers
- 08-J-005
"Assessment and Prospects of Intellectual Property Rights Provisions in RTAs" (SUZUKI Masabumi) - 08-J-002
"Legitimacy and Transparency of the WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures: An analysis of the present state of the DSU negotiations using private-interest/public-interest models" (KOBAYASHI Kenichi) - 07-J-051
"Homogeneity of Law in the European Economic Area: A Case of Integration of Multiple Regional Communities and Implementation of Common Rules in the Integrated Community" (OBASE Takuma) - 07-J-050
"Competition and Coordination in Dispute Settlement Procedures between WTO and Regional Economic Communities: Comparative Review of Forum-choice Clauses" (KAWASE Tsuyoshi) - 07-J-040
"Relationships between Investor-State Arbitration and Local Remedy Procedures in Bilateral Investment Treaties/Economic Partnership Agreements" (ABE Yoshinori) - 07-J-039
"Current status of tariff liberalization under regional trade agreements and the implications for the clarification of the discipline of GATT Article XXIV" (UENO Asako) - 07-J-037
"Comparison of the Economic Partnership Agreements Concluded by Japan: Features Regarding Institutional Arrangement" (KOBAYASHI Tomohiko) - 07-J-036
"Denial of Benefit Provisions in FTAs Accompanying the Liberalization of Trade in Services: Does the "Backdoor" Open for Signatory Countries Faced with FTA Inflexibility?" (WATANABE Shintaro)
RIETI Policy Symposium
2006
RIETI Discussion Papers
- 06-J-042
"Treatment of Technical Standards in Regional Trade Agreements - Some lessons for mutual recognition arrangements" (NAIKI Yoshiko) - 06-J-052
"Competition Policy and Law in Regional Economic Integration" (SERYO Shingo) - 06-J-053
"Disciplines on the Application of Antidumping Measures in Regional Economic Integration: A Quest of prerequisites for introducing disciplines through horizontal comparison" (KAWASHIMA Fujio) - 07-J-008
"Liberalization of Movement of Natural Persons in Regional Trade Agreements: A Convenient Framework of International Cooperation for Managing Cross-Border Labor Mobility" (TOJO Yoshizumi)
