Googling for the trade-human rights nexus in China: Can the WTO help?

• Main Author: GAO, Henry S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Human Rights Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2157; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99318269502601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=INK&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=INK&query=any,contains,Trade%20governance%20in%20the%20digital%20age:%20World%20Trade%20Forum&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

For a long time, the relationship between trade law and human rights has been a subject of hot debate between scholars from both disciplines. The latest Google episode in China provided yet another chance to revisit the debate. Compared to previous instances, this case is even more intriguing for a number of reasons. First, unlike previous cases, which were mostly about the WTO consistency of trade sanctions adopted in response to alleged human rights violations, the latest is a rare case on the possibility of using trade law to challenge directly the legality of national measures which could be framed as much as a trade law issue as a human rights issue. Second - and this point apparently relates to the first - in most of the previous situations, the alleged human rights violations almost exclusively affected only domestic individuals or firms. Yet in the Google case, it appears that the foreign firms are affected as much as, if not more than, the domestic ones. Third, the previous cases mostly concerned rules governing trade in goods, whereas most of the potential legal claims in the current case arise under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), an agreement that is newer and much less familiar. Fourth, to make the Google case even more complicated, the main services at issue are those that have only emerged since the dawn of the digital age, and it is highly unlikely that these services were even contemplated when the GATS rules were negotiated. All in all, these unique features make this case an interesting and challenging case study on the relationship between trade and human rights in the digital era.