WTO: US and Argentina settle dispute over patents and data protection

In May 2000, supplementing an earlier complaint filed in May 1999, the US filed a complaint against Argentina, alleging that its patent laws violate the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (the TRIPS Agreement). The gist of the US complaint was that Argentina's law failed to provide: (1) adequate protection against "unfair" commercial use of undisclosed test data submitted in order to get market approval of pharmaceutical products; (2) certain safeguards for compulsory licences on an invention granted on the basis of inadequate working by the patent holder; and (3) adequate measures to prevent infringements of patent rights. The US also alleged that Argentina denies certain exclusive rights of patent holders, such as the exclusive right to import the patented product into the country. At the end of May 2002, the US and Argentina notified the WTO that they had reached a "mutually agreed solution," without prejudice to their respective rights and obligations under WTO agreements, and the US has withdrawn its complaint.     

Explaining China's approach to investor-state dispute settlement reform: A contextual perspective

China's approach to ISDS reform is widely perceived as undecided and ambiguous. This paper provides the first detailed analysis of China's submission to the UNITRAL Working Group III and situates China's approach in the context of global dialogue of ISDS reform and competing reform proposals. The paper shows that China's open, flexible, and evolving approach to ISDS reform could be better understood by a contextual evaluation of the pertinent factors which have contributed to its formation. Moreover, this paper explains why China did not sign up to the EU's investment court system (ICS) proposal in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). Lastly, the paper argues that China should reconsider its attitude towards the ICS in the CAI context and that the EU's recent suggestion that the envisaged multilateral investment court may adopt an ‘open architecture’ is likely to enhance its appeal to China.     

No-fault cerebral palsy insurance: an alternative to the obstetrical malpractice lottery

Sixty percent of malpractice premiums paid by obstetricians go to cover suits for alleged birth-related cerebral palsy (CP). Yet substantially less than half of that money goes to CP victims, and less than 10 percent of children with CP receive any compensation at all from tort suits. This paper proposes a system that would compensate all children born with CP for most handicap-related expenses, in exchange for which the children would be foreclosed from bringing suits alleging birth-related malpractice. Malpractice would be policed by a state board, which would investigate all CP cases. This proposal would be more equitable than current systems. It would also be less expensive, since it would avoid costly litigation and decrease the cost of obstetrical malpractice insurance.     

State responses to the malpractice insurance "crisis" of the 1970s: an empirical assessment

Almost all states enacted legislation in response to the rapid rise in malpractice insurance premiums which occurred during the mid-1970s. After describing the types of statutory changes enacted, this study evaluates the influence of these changes on levels and growth of premiums paid by general practitioners, ophthalmologists, and orthopedic surgeons during 1974-78. The empirical results of the study presented here give no indication that individual state legislative actions, or actions taken collectively, had their intended effects on premiums. Several explanations for this result are explored.     

海上保险的告知义务：经济学的思考

探讨海上保险告知义务的经济学基础,分析现行告知义务规范存在的问题,并尝试运用法经济学重塑合理的告知义务法律规则.     

The United States‐China copyright dispute: A two‐level games analysis

United States media and computer software industries long have alleged they lose billions of dollars to copyright piracy in China. Negotiations between the countries have had little effect. This article uses two‐level games theory to explore why the United States is reluctant to impose sanctions, and why China is unwilling to take action against the pirates even at the risk of trade sanctions. Negotiations are examined at the usaional level and at the domestic level in both countries. At the usaional level, a two‐player sequential model of the game is presented. At the domestic level, the heterogeneity of interest groups in the United States, and the different agendas of central and provincial authorities in China are discussed. Based on this analysis, the article proposes, (1) a more flexible time‐frame for negotiations with foreign trading partners, (2) greater reliance on multilateral frameworks than on bilateral trade sanctions and (3) American efforts to distribute the gains from better copyright protection to local enterprises in foreign countries to create domestic pressure groups favoring stronger copyright regimes.     

Mandating insurance offers for low-wage workers: an evaluation of labor market effects

Employing a simultaneous model of part-time status, health insurance offers, and wages, we examine the impacts on employment and health insurance coverage of nondiscrimination rules in the tax code governing employer-sponsored health insurance. Using 1988 and 1993 Employee Benefits Supplements to the Current Population Surveys and variations in health insurance premiums and minimum wages, we find that health insurance coverage among low-wage primary earners is increased by at most 31 percent by the policy, at a cost of an estimated 0.8-5.4-percentage-point decrease in full-time employment for low-wage workers.     

Domestic violence,domestic dispute reporting,and police disposition patterns: A pilot study

The data supported prior research findings that, in general, the police response to domestic dispute and violence incidents does not result in criminal complaints and subsequently, no action is taken. Considered separately, urban areas produce a lower reported domestic dispute rate, but display a stronger tendency to arrest offenders under the Ohio Domestic Violence Program and disputes result in action not being taken more often than in suburban and less often than in rural areas. Surburban areas evidence the highest reported domestic dispute rate, the lowest tendency to initiate criminal complaints under the Ohio Domestic Violence Program, and tend to arrest offenders less often and make fewer referrals to other agencies than urban areas. Rural areas have a higher reported domestic dispute rate than urban areas, arrest fewer offenders, and make more referrals to other agencies than suburban areas. The data suggested that domestic dispute and violence incidents are handled differently by urban. suburban, and rural police jurisdictions.     

Providing health insurance in rural china: from research to policy

The focus of this case study is utilizing research to influence policy in a large developing country. Our experiences involve the lack of health insurance for China's rural populations and how our research helped shape China's recent policy attention and efforts on this issue. More than 80 percent of China's 700 million rural residents have no health insurance. This has been the case for the past thirty years, since the collapse of the once-successful Rural Cooperative Medical System after the economic reforms of the early 1980s. In 2002, the Chinese government announced a new rural health financing policy to provide health insurance for its rural populations, financed by a matching fund with contributions from central and local governments, as well as from individual households. This article documents the authors' experiences in addressing several critical questions for converting research results into policy actions, including the following: How are researchers to address policy relevant questions? How are they to acquire the attention of top policy makers to a specific problem? When is the issue at hand serious but not yet critical? And lastly, how are researchers to develop policy recommendations that stand a good chance of being accepted and enacted? Major lessons learned include the need to better understand the mandates and institutional constraints of the policy makers, the appropriateness of timing of both research result and policy efforts, how to use a country's cultural context to garner support of the government, how to enhance the policy's impact by combining formal and informal channels of communication for research dissemination, and the importance of following the policy process through the implementation phase to ensure the original objectives are achieved.     

Unfinished business: how litigation relates to health care regulation

"Regulation by litigation" is a recently recognized trend in American legal governance that develops differently in each economic sector it affects. In health care, widespread litigation can be viewed as the product of three partial transformations: incomplete industrialization, incomplete consumerism, and incomplete social solidarity. One can argue that the public turns to the courts because other actors who might exercise judgment and authority to resolve problems appear unreliable. Because litigation has several features at odds with sound health policy--including its cost, its hindsight bias, and its adversarial character--it may be necessary to develop new discretionary institutions to address specific questions that regulators cannot or will not answer.     

Diseases endemic in developing countries: how to incentivize innovation

This comment addresses the inadequacies of research and development for diseases endemic in developing countries and explores how the patent system can inhibit innovation for new drugs for neglected diseases. The author analyzes four strategies to encourage innovation, including open source initiatives, patent pools, prizes, and wild card patent extensions, and examines how these alternative systems may spur innovation while balancing cost concerns held by drug manufacturers and purchasers. The author concludes that a combination of solutions may provide the best framework for the creation of essential medicines for neglected diseases.