GENERAL AND PARTICULAR APPLYING ELEMENTS OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

In the context of WTO dispute settlement, the precautionary principle is a predominant concept, in the face of serious risks and scientific uncertainty, that is often characterized as “better safe than sorry.” Although the precautionary principle appears in various treaties, declarations, and even laws, it is often formulated in abstract terms, leading to the great ambiguity of its primary elements. The Panel and the Appellate Body always avoid discussing the precautionary principle in WTO cases due to its obscure definition. On March 13, 2012, the United States, the European Union, and Japan each requested consultations with China as China’s measures that made restrictions on the exportation of rare earths, tungsten, and molybdenum had been in conflict with their national interest. After examining the matter at issue, the Panel and the Appellate Body rejected China’s arguments regardless of its repeated claims about its consideration of environmental protection. With the case as the starting point, this article focuses on the precautionary principle and explores its status and elements, in order to establish a two-dimensional model of the precautionary principle that is applicable in international trade.     

THE TRADE IN TOOLS: THE MARKET FOR ILLICIT GUNS IN HIGH‐RISK NETWORKS

Illegal guns circulating among high‐risk networks represent a threat to the security and well‐being of urban neighborhoods. Research findings reveal that illegal firearms are usually acquired through a variety of means, including theft and diversions from legitimate firearms commerce. Little is known, however, about the underground gun markets supplying the gang and drug networks responsible for a large share of gun violence in U.S. cities. In this article, we take a mixed‐methods approach, combining trace analyses of recovered handguns with ethnographic interviews of high‐risk gun users to develop new insights on the entry of guns into three criminal networks in Boston. We find that guns possessed by Boston gang members are of a different character compared with other crime guns; these guns are more likely to be older firearms originating from New Hampshire, Maine, and I‐95 southern states. The results of our qualitative research reveal that gang members and drug dealers pay inflated prices for handguns diverted by traffickers exploiting unregulated secondary market transactions, with significant premiums paid for high‐caliber semiautomatic pistols. Taken together, these findings provide an analytic portrait of the market for illicit guns among those most proximate to violence, yielding novel empirical, theoretical, and practical insights into the problem of criminal gun access.     

THE REVENGE OF THE TRAIL SMELTER: ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AS EXPROPRIATION PURSUANT TO THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

[N]o state has the right to use or permit the use of its territory in such a manner as to cause injury … in the territory of another or the properties or persons therein, when the case is of serious consequence and the injury is established by clear and convincing evidence. ¹
Under the polluter pays principle, the community effectively "owns" the environment, and forces users to pay for damages they impose. By contrast, if the community must pay the polluter, the implicit message is that the polluter owns the environment and can use and pollute it with impunity. ²     

WTO及中国-东盟自由贸易区法律、贸易研究会（深圳）

为适应建立中国-东盟自由贸易区的需要，开展WTO及中国-东盟自由贸易区法律、贸易问题的研究，促进中国与东盟国家的投资贸易和民间友好交流，会址设在中国第一个经济特区深圳的“WTO及中国-东盟自由贸易区法律、贸易研究会（深圳）”于2004年9月正式成立。