The aim of this thesis is to examine whether South Africa's recently promulgated Protection of Investment Act represents a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime. In undertaking this examination, the bilateral investment treaty regime which preceded the Protection of Investment Act was first reviewed and some of the typical clauses found in these treaties were examined. Pursuant to this examination, the Foresti arbitration, through which a group of Italian and Luxembourgish investors challenged South Africa's affirmative action measures in the mining industry on the basis of the bilateral investment treaties that South Africa had entered into, was then introduced. The author examined the claim made in Foresti, South Africa's response and the final award. The next Chapter then turned to the effects of the Foresti arbitration, which set in motion South Africa's review of the BITs it had entered into, and then the eventual termination of these BITs and replacement with the Protection of Investment Act. In answering the central question of this thesis, a clause by clause analysis of the Protection of Investment Act was conducted in order to determine whether that Act is able to satisfy the deficiencies highlighted in the BIT review pursuant to Foresti. In conducting this analysis, the author highlighted some notable omissions in the Protection of Investment Act. Through this review and comparison, it was concluded that the Protection of Investment Act fails as a viable alternative to the bilateral investment treaty regime for a number of reasons, and in particular for crystallising the flawed BIT regime through a legislative savings provision. A better alternative for South Africa would have been renegotiating historical BITs based on a Model BIT incorporating the necessary amendments to rectify the perceived BIT limitations as highlighted in South Africa's BIT review.

This minor-dissertation considers the issue of data protection coverage within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its importance to the Internet Telecommunications (ICT) sector in the various states of SADC but also its importance in providing protection to individuals in a region where internet penetration is increasing at a rapid pace. SADC introduced the SADC Model Law with the assistance of the Support for Harmonisation of the ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (HIPSSA Project). This is meant to provide a model in terms of which states in SADC could introduce or improve their own data protection regimes. Nevertheless, this instrument has not been successful in changing data protection practices within SADC, with only one state introducing a draft Bill on the basis of the Model Law. Nonetheless, despite the apparent failure of the Model Law, there will still be a degree of harmonisation between the various data protection laws in the sub-region due to the influence of the European Union (EU)'s Data Protection Directive. The approach taken is a comparative study which first considers the data protection laws of Mauritius and South Africa which have the two largest ICT sectors in SADC, the Zimbabwean draft Bill on Data Protection which was based on the SADC Model Law, and the Model Law itself. The purpose of this analysis is to determine whether a level of harmonisation has been achieved in SADC, despite the failure of the Model Law. The next step was a comparative study between the Model Law and the European Union's Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and the General Data Protection Directive (GDPR) 2016/679. The purpose of this was to track the development of data protection law in the European Union due to the impact which these laws had on data protection globally and to show differences between data protection regimes in SADC and the European Union. The comparative study of laws in SADC illustrated that there is significant similarity between the laws considered, thereby proving that the Data Protection Directive played a more significant role in the harmonisation of data protection laws than the SADC Model Law. Nonetheless, the Model Law bared a significant resemblance to the other two existing data protection regimes. It also illustrated the weakness of the Model Law by demonstrating the lack of protection and shortcomings found in the Zimbabwean Bill based on the Model Law. The comparative study between the regimes in the EU and the Model Law illustrates disparities in the level of protection found in the Current European regime, the GDPR and in SADC. The GDPR is stricter than the Model Law and has extra-territorial application with the potential to apply in SADC. Further, the Model Law is based upon the Directive, and is, thus, outdated and weaker. The Model Law has, therefore, failed its stated goal of harmonising data protection laws in SADC yet there is still a degree of harmonisation due to the influence of the Data Protection Directive. The study showed the importance of having a strong data protection regime and also the shortcomings of existing regimes in SADC, when compared to the European Union.

Despite the fact that the Commission of the European Community has made Korea one of three main target countries of anti-dumping measures, because Korea is pressing to export more of the electronics products which the Community is struggling to protect, study of the Community Antidumping Law in Korea has barely begun. Therefore, in this thesis, the measures that may be imposed by Community authorities with respect to trade with countries not members of the European Community, especially with Korea, under the Community Anti-dumping Regulation, in the context of the GATT Anti-dumping system are explained and analysed. With regard to the Community's anti-dumping rules, protectionist bias in their application is examined, in particular the determination of normal value and export price, constructed normal value and constructed export price, the comparison of normal value and export price, the calculation of dumping margin, and the determination of injury, and proposals are made as to the extent to which the Community anti-dumping rules need to be revised to diminish the bias in their range that explicitly favours Community producers and a finding of dumping, in the context of the GATT rules. With regard to the Korean Anti-dumping rules, on the other hand, they are introduced, generally. Anti-dumping measures in Korea have not been applied properly in favour of Korean producers, mainly because of the lack of transparency and institutional inertia. Therefore, enactment of a special Act governing anti-dumping complaints, modelled on a unitary system rather than a bifurcated system, should be considered for the transparent and speedy investigations. Institutional inertia must be rectified, i.e., more precise definition is required in some terminologies, and provisions on cumulation and anti-circumvention should have been prescribed before their application. Through a comparative study of the anti-dumping laws in the Community and Korea, it becomes clear that various aspects of the technical methodology applied by the authorities in anti-dumping determinations have a tendency to make findings of dumping largely automatic and inevitable. Therefore, it must always be borne in mind that anti-dumping measures can be imposed only where dumping and resulting injury is actually established, not artificially. This study has looked at anti-dumping laws in the Community and Korea comparatively, in the context of the GATT Anti-dumping rules. The Community refers to GATT and the Code in the preamble of its anti-dumping regulation, which has no binding effect in Court, and adopts the regulation in accordance with existing international obligations, in particular those arising from Article VI of the GATT and from the GATT Anti-dumping Code. However, this does not ensure an interpretation in conformity with GATT rules and its spirit, because the wording of the GATT anti-dumping rules taken literally is very ambiguous and can be interpreted very differently. Therefore, a comparative study with the Community's antidumping rules and its practice as a legislative model should be very helpful, in order to improve the current Korean anti-dumping system, because the GATT anti-dumping rules can play a very limited role only as a guideline.

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No description available.

Although the WTO anti-dumping rules have been created to reconcile and monitor domestic anti-dumping measures, different jurisdictions still have tremendous variations in their domestic anti-dumping legislation and interpretations. Such differences may suggest opportunities for further innovations, especially for countries where the anti-dumping legislation is under-developed, such as China. Through a comparative study of the domestic anti-dumping legislation among the United States, the European Community, and China, problems and opportunities for the innovation of China's anti-dumping law will be found.

Acknowledging a relationship between international human rights and international trade law adds to the legitimacy of economic, social and cultural rights already enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the central institution for international trade law and it has demonstrated a commitment to enhance human rights. This commitment has been realized through WTO efforts to enhance human dignity and eradicate poverty. These WTO efforts ought to be fostered and used to promote human rights. The purpose of this study was two fold – first, demonstrate that a relationship between international trade law and international human rights exists; and second, that this relationship is useful in promoting economic, social and cultural rights. This relationship will be examined through WTO initiatives, case studies and the Accession of the Republic of China in 2001.

This study explored whether there is an inherent inequitable nature of the liberalization process with respect to the World Trade Organization Agreements, namely TRIMs (Trade-related Investment Measures), TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and the Agreement on Agriculture.

It is a well-known fact that international trade contracts bear inherently more risk than the trade contracts entered by the parties from the same country. This is due to the differences in business methods and practices used, trade cultures of the parties involved, laws and regulations in the respective jurisdictions. Under these circumstances, it is very important for the seller to have the assurance of that he receives the payment for the goods dispatched and for the buyer to receive the goods what has been ordered. One effective way of having such an assurance is to rely on a letter of credit as an international payment method. But for exporters in particular, this payment method has presented difficulties in meeting the compliance requirements necessary for the payment to be triggered. The UCP 600 published by the International Chamber of Commerce provide the rules that govern letters of credit transactions. At the introduction of the UCP 600, it was aimed to remove wording that could lead to inconsistent application and interpretation, as against the language and style used in the previous version, namely the UCP 500. Highlighting the experiences under UCP 500, the ultimate focus of the revision of the UCP was to minimise the level of litigations that had arisen under the rules provided in the UCP. In several surveys, it has been reported that, nearly 50% of the first presentation for payment under letters of credit are rejected by the banks. This situation implies the fact that the provisions which cover letters of credit transactions are not either clear enough or well understood by the parties involved. Similarly, the decisions made by Courts around the world on issues related to letters of credit have taken different approaches when applying and interpreting the rules. This can clearly be seen by a myriad of controversial judicial standards which have been applied to similar mistakes in documents presented to the bank for payment. This thesis is an investigation into those issues to find out the optimal standards that could be applied to solve the said problems. In doing so, this thesis will strive to ascertain what remedial measures could be taken to address the issues related to examination of documents, the rejection of payment and fraud exception. Key words: International Trade, International Trade Law, Law of Letters of Credit, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit 600, Examination of Documents and communicating the decision.

Acknowledging a relationship between international human rights and international trade law adds to the legitimacy of economic, social and cultural rights already enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the central institution for international trade law and it has demonstrated a commitment to enhance human rights. This commitment has been realized through WTO efforts to enhance human dignity and eradicate poverty. These WTO efforts ought to be fostered and used to promote human rights. The purpose of this study was two fold – first, demonstrate that a relationship between international trade law and international human rights exists; and second, that this relationship is useful in promoting economic, social and cultural rights. This relationship will be examined through WTO initiatives, case studies and the Accession of the Republic of China in 2001.