International Law & Regional Integration
Data Localization, International Law Perspective
Data protection, data localization, data flow, international trade law, trade barriers, WTO panels
Although the core principles of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) can extend the agreement to the movement of data, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of GATS in the digital age, there is very little to prevent governments from implementing wide data localisation measures, as GATS provides broad exceptions that create leeway for circumventing these obligations. Additionally, the ambiguity surrounding internet technology has given governments more justification. After all, how could anyone challenge these policies when technology and intelligent services themselves were once incapable of detecting what Edward Snowden later exposed? In response to these uncertainties, and the existing security exceptions in GATS, countries continue to invent new data localisation measures through different approaches. China forbids data transfers by default, only allowing them as exceptions, and emphasises national security with ambiguous discretionary limits. The GDPR limits transfers from outside the EU in order to balance privacy and trade but provides exceptions. The USA, without a unified federal legislative framework, has focused localization on areas such as taxation and defence, motivated mostly by national security. Given these dynamics, and the sensitivity of national security, the author argues that greater emphasis should be placed on reactivating the role of WTO panels and, at the very least, establishing broad boundaries for what constitutes security, even if the concept itself is difficult to define precisely.
ALI, SHAREEF SANAR
CIS Interparliamentary Assembly: role in post-Soviet integration
Commonwealth of Independent States, Interparliamentary Assembly, model legislation, integration, former Soviet countries
The Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA) was established at almost the same time as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). According to the official position, to date the IPA CIS has adopted about 650 model laws and other documents and has become the main cooperation platform for parliamentarians in a new political and economic environment. More than 70% of all IPA acts are implemented into the legislation of the CIS countries, and about 10% contain provisions that overlap with those in national laws.
However, there are also problems. Throughout the history of the Assembly, its chairmen have always been representatives of Russia. Considering the specifics of the political development of the post-Soviet area, one can note the relative weakness of parliaments, which tend to act only in conjunction with the Presidents. And the CIS itself has for a long time been more of a reserve platform for Russia than an influential integration organization.
LAZAREVA, MARINA
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