 From Progressive Liberalization to Progressive Regulation in WTO LawThomas Cottier Journal of International Economic Law, 2006, vol. 9, issue 4, 779-821 Abstract: This paper addresses conceptual problems of special and differential (S&D) treatment of developing countries (DCs). Observing that past and present avenues have largely failed, it suggests the concept of progressive regulation in the field of prescriptive rules. Based on the idea of progressive liberalization, it develops a new concept of graduation inherent to substantive rules and suggests taking recourse to individual scheduling of commitments. Learning from the idea of progressive liberalization, commensurate to diverging levels of development, it is submitted that graduation, based on recourse to economic factors within substantive rules, and scheduling of additional commitments could replace traditional perceptions of S&D treatment and render World Trade Organization (WTO) more responsive to the needs of developing Member States of the WTO. As an example, this paper applies these concepts to the problem of patenting pharmaceutical products. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press. Date: 2006 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jieclw:v:9:y:2006:i:4:p:779-821 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Journal of International Economic Law is currently edited by Kathleen Claussen, Sergio Puig and Michael Waibel More articles in Journal of International Economic Law from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
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