Our country is from the accession to the WTO on January 1 of A.D. 2002 (abbreviate as WTO), after becoming 144th member's body, according to the classification of GATS, have educated into a service trade , has educated and turned into the goods that can be bought and sold. Under WTO norm, the opening and marketization of the educational market have been already irresistible, higher education opens, globalization and market-based challenge in the face of the educational market, how to develop under the educational liberalization policy? Quite worth the discussion .

The analysis of non-discrimination under Article III of GATT has shown weakness or flaws throughout more than fifty years. The language used by GATT/WTO panels and the Appellate Body in interpreting the two prongs of non-discrimination in the national treatment clause, namely, likeness and protection, lagged behind economic reality. The critical legal analysis carried out in here reveals, to some extent, this while offering a clearer and sounder analysis to non-discrimination based more on market analysis and its economic indicators.

This thesis provides an analysis of the complex relationship between law and legitimacy in the WTO. It focuses on the notional dichotomy between ‘Member-driven’ (input-based) and ‘results-oriented’ (output-based) narratives of the WTO’s legitimacy, and how such narratives are both framed by, and reflected in, WTO law. It demonstrates how these narratives are used to legitimate the exercise of legal power in ways that exceed the reach of their internal normative claims; how they are used to displace responsibility for decision-making in the WTO; and the consequences of choosing to emphasize particular forms of legitimacy for our understandings of the WTO’s place in the world. In the process, the thesis also seeks to destabilize these legitimacy narratives by highlighting their partial, contingent and often mutually contradictory natures. The thesis proceeds in three parts. The first part (Chapter Two) clarifies what is meant by the terms ‘power’ and ‘legitimacy’ as used in the thesis and stresses their significance for WTO law. The second part (Chapters Three and Four) addresses two key input-oriented narratives of legitimacy associated with WTO law — those of consent and democracy. It argues that although consent has been central to understanding the legitimacy of WTO law as it is, and democracy is increasingly advanced in relation to WTO law as it should be, both narratives suffer from serious normative and descriptive limitations. The third part delves further into the concept of output legitimacy and its limits (Chapter Five), before exploring its application in relation to the legal-institutional dynamics of WTO negotiation rounds (Chapter Six) and the treatment of economic evidence in WTO dispute settlement (Chapter Seven). This part ultimately concludes that a more critical engagement with the concept of output legitimacy could open up productive avenues for rethinking the law and practice of the WTO.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Bonn, Univ., Magisterarbeit, 2006

Zugl.: Münster, Univ., Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Oder), Univ., Diss., 2007

Bochum, Univ., Diss., 2004. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Omslag is titelblad. Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

The dissertation discusses the application of “Agreement on Subsidy and Countervailing Measures (ASCM)” of WTO to non-market economies (NMEs).  The difficulties of application of ASCM to NMEs mainly lie in two basic questions.  The first is how to separate the subsidy and government involvement in a NME.  The second is how perfect the market has to be in order to qualify as a benchmark to calculate subsidy margins. By focusing on WTO rules and substantial WTO cases, this dissertation analyzes the difficulties in application of ASCM to NMEs from seven perspectives in legal practice.  They are: (1) whether subsidies in public utility enterprises in China are actionable, because such subsidies as upstream subsidies pass benefits to export-oriented enterprises? (2) whether subsidies may continue after privatisation of state-owned companies? (3) whether the loans provided by state-owned banks in China are subsidies? (4) whether it is fair to evaluate the subsidies margins of the land use rights in China by using out-of-country benchmark? (5) tax-incentive subsidies in China; (6) the calculation of a subsidy margin in NMEs; and (7) whether currency manipulation constitutes a subsidy? The dissertation finds that the difficulties of application of ASCM to NMEs are due to a number of reasons.  First, the deficiencies of ASCM cannot explain the application of ASCM to NMEs; second, if applicable to NMEs, there are difficulties in defining a subsidy in NMEs and in calculating a subsidy margin in NMEs; third, the non-unification of assessment of a NME results in unfairness to China which faces different standards of evaluating a NME.  Even though China has been a market economy in some countries’ view, it is difficult to be recognised as a market economy by all countries.