The Rule of Law in Times of Technological Uncertainty: Is International Economic Law Ready For Emerging Supervisory Trends?

Abstract

This paper identifies regulators’ increasing discretionary practices in the innovation sectors and examines whether international economic law is prepared for this supervisory evolution. As demonstrated by the three cases studied, very often technology laws themselves do not entail sufficient specification, and this is primarily because they are heavily oriented toward principles more so than rules to allow for innovation. This raises the question of how to ensure that these ‘principles’ are consistently and predictably applied. GATS Article VI:1was designed to be an important tool in tackling situations in which a general scheme does not make any distinction between foreign and domestic service suppliers, but the administration of this scheme is not reasonable, objective or impartial. The provision, however, is not sufficiently forceful in a manner that safeguards due process and counters the potential abuse of administrative power.