US Approach Research Articles

Correction: Navigating the legal landscape of AI copyright: a comparative analysis of EU, US, and Chinese approaches

Correction: Navigating the legal landscape of AI copyright: a comparative analysis of EU, US, and Chinese approaches

Bad faith litigation of intellectual property as a violation of China’s anti-monopoly law: How should the current approach be improved?

ABSTRACT Despite that access to justice is a universally recognized human right, comparative antitrust experience from both sides of the Atlantic demonstrates that bad faith litigation of intellectual property may constitute the abuse of dominance under the competition law. There has been an anti-monopoly case in China where bad faith litigation of intellectual property raised competition concerns, yet the Chinese anti-monopoly authority does not have sufficient experience in addressing these concerns, leaving some problems to be solved. Arguably, the Chinese authority neither provided a clear test for the assessment of bad faith litigation of intellectual property nor considered the interest balance in the case. This paper critically examines the US and EU approaches to analysing the bad faith litigation of intellectual property under antitrust law, and argues they in nature share a similar approach. In this regard, by learning from comparative experience, this paper suggests that China should establish an antitrust counterclaim in an infringement lawsuit of intellectual property and adopt a clear-up test for the bad faith litigation of intellectual property under the anti-monopoly law. Additionally, China should specify two specific circumstances: the first is related to a circumstance where the intellectual property holder has known that it was not entitled to any kind of legal intellectual property rights, and the second is related to another circumstance where the intellectual property in question becomes a standard.

Legal Defense of US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Through the Prism of US Laws

The US drone policy of targeted killings after 9/11 as part of its counter-terrorism efforts in Pakistan’s tribal areas has raised major serious concerns, particularly legal issues. This paper attempts to assess how US Laws defend drone strikes. US Congressional Order 1973, AUMF and its national self-defence right have mainly been focused on. The study is qualitative in nature and based on secondary sources. The results indicated the US approach to be based solely on its domestic laws and realist thinking. This indifferent legal analysis by the US is not acceptable for other legal regimes and requires certain modifications.Therefore the study recommends that rather than relying on a single state law the other legal circles and stakeholders may be given due share in deciding and finally adopting a well established international legal framework for drones. Only a consensus-based legal system can make drone use more effective in future wars.

인공지능 규제

Artificial intelligence (AI), the key technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is expected to bring numerous socioeconomic benefits, but there are also concerns about its adverse effects. This study aims to explore policy options for building trust in AI and discuss their limitations. Specifically, we analyze the EU and US approaches to creating so-called “trustworthy AI” and draw policy implications for South Korea. The EU's approach to overcoming differences in socioeconomic maturity, government capacity, and institutional context among its member states is both normative and centralized. On the other hand, the United States, which aims to maintain its technological hegemony, has taken a light-touch approach to promoting the AI industry by granting discretionary authority to sectoral regulators while encouraging private sector autonomy. The changing environment calls for a full-scale discussion on AI regulation in Korea. In this paper, we point out that it is essential to consider regulatory arrangements that include at least three elements: risk-based regulation, co-regulatory framework, and harmonization with international standards. We conclude by discussing policy options and limitations.

Public participation in nuclear waste storage and disposal: a comparative analysis of German and US approaches

Abstract. The national nuclear waste management programs of Germany and the United States of America currently both find themselves at critical junctures. The US government is reviving its efforts for consent-based siting of a consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility (, ), in the momentary absence of, but with future hope for, a viable permanent disposal solution for the nation's nuclear waste. Germany is in the process of implementing legal directives to find a final disposal site for its nuclear waste that meets high safety standards (BASE, 2022), while further developing its strategy for public participation in the process (Weißpflug et al., 2022). The two national contexts exhibit significant differences in political systems, historical trajectories, institutional roles, and societal structure, as well as attitudes towards nuclear energy and radioactive waste disposal strategies (Richter et al., 2022; Saraç-Lesavre, 2021; Joppke, 1993; Blattmann et al., 2023). However, respective approaches to public participation in managing and disposing of nuclear waste exhibit some commonalities in motivations, strategies, and goals. What can policy audiences in both countries learn from the respective national nuclear waste management programs, creating the potential for participatory processes to be more adaptive, responsive, and flexible to a diversity of values and social actors? How do the findings from the comparative analysis of US and German cases translate into policy-relevant lessons for other national waste management programs engaging with the design of participatory processes and nuclear waste governance frameworks? We offer a systematic comparative analysis of the foundations and rationale of the US and German programs for nuclear waste disposal. We aim to illuminate conceptual and empirical contrasts and comparisons between the two nations' engagement of the public in the storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel, leading to nationally appropriate policy-relevant insights. Categories for analysis include national disposal goals, historical trajectories, institutional setup, and definition of partners in participation processes. Through comparison and contrast of these categories across the two nations, we allow for deeper insight into the conditions, frameworks, and assumptions in which policy makers operate and can draw from Hopkin (2010). This discussion will identify and compare relevant knowledge, narratives, and legal frameworks in each nation's approach to incorporating public participation in the process of searching for a site to store or dispose of nuclear waste. We encourage reflection and learning through comparing and contrasting core principles of these two cases, with the aim of maximizing avenues of mutual learning towards responsible, safe, and democratic nuclear waste management.

Declining United States Leadership and the Future of International Political System

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been a major player in promoting international peace and security. Today the declining US leadership has raised some questions such as: What are the factors that led to the decline of US leadership internationally? How did the US react to its dwindling leadership role? Are the current US strategies for regaining leadership in international politics effective? Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following research questions: Is declining US leadership a potential threat to international peace and security? How effective are the current US strategies in regaining leadership in international politics? The long cycle theory was used in this study. The study also relied on secondary data such as textbooks, magazines and internet sources, while content analysis was used to analyze the data collected. This study argues that the declining US leadership role poses a potential threat to the future of the international system, as no state like no other is willing to provide the financial and other resources necessary to meet global challenges for years to come, compared to the US's overall commitment to promoting international peace and security. Finally, this study regards the current US approaches as ineffective and therefore advocates new approaches.
 
 Received: 23 June 2023 / Accepted: 29 August 2023 / Published: 5 September 2023

Acceding to the Moon Agreement to acquire legal certainty: An optional solution for China in the new era of lunar exploration and exploitation

Lunar exploration and exploitation have thrived in recent years due to advancements in space technology and the increasing demand for better utilization of the moon. These activities fall within the realm of outer space activities, mainly governed by international space treaties. However, lunar exploration, especially resource exploitation, is challenging to conduct at the moment under a definitive and generally acknowledged space treaty. The Moon Agreement, as the specific international space treaty addressing these activities, is not currently functioning well. Inspired by the US, several nations opposed to the Moon Agreement have chosen to enact national legislation to address the legal uncertainty. The US has initiated international accords unilaterally in an attempt to establish standards for rules on lunar exploration and exploitation, which has generated significant influence. As one of the major players in this arena, China must face this competitive situation and assume responsibility for establishing a harmonious environment for lunar exploration and exploitation. Instead of emulating the US approach and getting entangled in the competition of rule-making, China should consider accession to the Moon Agreement as a means to attain legal certainty, not only for its own requirements but also to contribute to the realization of international cooperation through space treaties adopted by the United Nations to the fullest extent.

Rhetorical coercion, institutional legitimacy and the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

AbstractThis article centres around one singular yet substantively important empirical puzzle: why did the United States fail to delegitimate the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank? I argue that a crucial factor missing from existing analyses is China's rhetorical coercion. To substantiate this argument, I first reconstruct from the perspective of framing the US‐China rhetorical contestation over the AIIB at the early stage. This results in the identification of seven competing frames pertaining to the purpose and procedural legitimacy of the bank: Sub‐standard, Tool and Rival promoted by the United States; High‐quality, Equality, Complement and Welcome Change by China. To flesh out China's rhetorical coercion, I gauge the coercive power of the frames identified before zooming in on Complement and Welcome Change and uncovering therein three coercive claims: shortfalls in Asia's infrastructure finance, weaknesses in the existing system of international financial institutions and inconsistency in the US approach to the AIIB and China's rise. These claims considerably restricted the room for the United States to engage in principled opposition, and in tandem with developments favourable to the AIIB (not least the participation of Western countries), enabled China to rhetorically coerce the United States.

An independent European macroeconomics? A history of European macroeconomics through the lens of the European Economic Review

Economics in Europe has become more international since the 1970s. To a certain extent, this internationalisation is also an ‘Americanisation’ as many European economists have adopted the standards and approaches of US economics. This prompts an important question: amidst this convergence, are there any fields that have managed to retain a distinctively European character?In this article, we use topic modelling and bibliometric coupling to identify European specialties between 1969 and 2002. We focus on macroeconomic articles published in the European Economic Review and compare their bibliographic references and textual content to what has been published in the top 5 journals.Despite economics internationalization since the 1970s, European macroeconomics displayed distinct characteristics across two distinct periods. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, European macroeconomists maintained a certain distance from US debates centred around rational expectations and new classical economics. However, they embraced the concept of microfoundations through the lens of disequilibrium theory, fostering transnational collaborations and offering a unique framework for addressing various macroeconomic issues. Nevertheless, both the prominence of new classical economics in the US and the decline of the disequilibrium approach after the mid-1980s, European macroeconomics shifted towards closer alignment with US approaches. In the 1990s, Political economy, inspired by pioneering US contributions like Kydland and Prescott (1977) and Barro and Gordon (1983a,b), emerged in the 1990s as a new framework offering a common language for many European macroeconomists. However, specific European challenges like high unemployment rates and European integration continued to drive research in distinctive directions.

Systematic construction of lawfulness of processing employees’ personal information under China's personal information protection law

With the rapid development and widespread use of digital technologies in the workplace in China, employers’ right to monitor and direct employees has often been abused, raising a number of disputes over the infringement of employees’ right to privacy in terms of their personal information. China must urgently develop an appropriate approach to balancing these two conflicting interests. However, there is currently no coherent and uniform regime governing the protection of employees’ personal information in China. The primary legal source on which employers can rely is the latest version of the Chinese Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), which offers three lawful bases for employers’ processing of their employees’ personal information. These bases are employee consent; “necessity for the conclusion or performance of an employment contract”; and “necessity for conducting human resource management.” Concerns have been expressed regarding the reasonableness and effectiveness of the three lawful bases under the PIPL. First, it is both legally and practically problematic for the PIPL to rely so heavily on employee consent. Second, it is unclear whether the other two lawful bases relieve employers of the duty of notification and, if so, how to safeguard employees’ right to know. Third, the ambiguous standard of “necessity” requires clarification.This article argues that China should adopt many elements from EU law, while US law should be only followed in relation to the standard of “necessity”. In relation to employee consent, the EU approach is preferable to the US approach. As the EU approach does not generally regard employees’ consent as a lawful basis for the processing of their information and uses the other two lawful bases as alternatives to employee consent, this approach better reflects the customary practices of employee subordination and employer control in China. In contrast, US law deems employee consent to be an absolute general defense to the tort of privacy violation and adopts an employer favoritism approach to balancing these two conflicting interests, which is not appropriate in the Chinese context. In relation to the scope of necessity, three tests taken from the EU and US approaches should be considered by the Chinese courts. In addition, when processing personal information based on the other two lawful bases, employers should safeguard employees’ right to know through collective contracts concluded with labor unions or employee representatives under the Chinese Labor Contract Law, which would effectively address employers’ arbitrariness. Ultimately, these changes would produce a better balance between employees’ right to privacy in terms of their personal information and employers’ need to subordinate and control employees.

A novel method for the remediation of wastewater containing acid red 131 dye using acoustic cavitation combined with sulphur-doped TiO2 and oxidants.

The present study investigated the degradation of Acid Red 131 (AR131) dye using a combination of ultrasound-induced cavitation, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, chemical oxidants, and photocatalyst, focusing on the effect of operating parameters. It was established that acidic pH, higher input power, and lower initial concentration resulted in higher degradation. Sulphur-doped titanium dioxide (S-TiO2) synthesized using a novel ultrasound-assisted method showed an optimum dosage of 300ppm for the AR131 degradation with sulphur to titanium ratio of 2:1. In the combination approach, the optimum dosage of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and potassium persulfate (KPS) was established as 100ppm and 400ppm respectively. The maximum degradation of 90.3% was obtained using a combined approach of US + KPS + UV/S-TiO2 whereas, a maximum synergetic coefficient of 1.57 was obtained for the approach of US + UV/S-TiO2 with degradation of 86.96%. It was also elucidated that for combination approaches of US + H2O2, US + H2O2 + KPS, and US + H2O2 + KPS + UV/S-TiO2, the synergetic coefficients were lower than one due to undesirable side reactions and radical scavenging. Scale-up studies performed at 15 times of the laboratory scale volume, elucidated that the maximum degradation was obtained as 58.01% for the approach of US + KPS + UV/S-TiO2. Therefore, the approach of US + KPS + UV/S-TiO2 was elucidated as the most efficient in degrading the AR131 dye at both small and large scale of operation. In terms of synergy, the approach of US + UV/S-TiO2 was more efficient. Overall, an optimized combination approach was successfully demonstrated for the effective degradation of AR131 dye with synergism and better results at a large scale.

Post-9/11 US thinking and approaches to nuclear deterrence: the Bush Doctrine and the role of nuclear weapons in US deterrence strategy

Charting a course through US administrations from the late 1990s to the present day, this article considers the George W. Bush administration’s thinking on nuclear deterrence in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11: What was distinctive about the Bush administration’s thinking and approach to nuclear deterrence? To what extent, and to what effect have the Bush administration’s approaches proved enduring? The article considers the prima facie contradictory nature of the administration’s deterrence objectives against the backdrop of a shifting security environment, characterised by the proliferation of WMDs to ‘rogue states’ and non-state actors, nuclear multipolarity, disruptive emerging technologies, and long-held US commitments to its global allies and partners—ensuring the centrality of nuclear weapons in US national security policy, despite sustained efforts to reduce this reliance.

Impact of the Regulatory Framework on Medical Device Software Manufacturers: Are the Guidance Documents Supporting the Practical Implementation? Comment on "Clinical Decision Support and New Regulatory Frameworks for Medical Devices: Are We Ready for It? - A Viewpoint Paper".

The increasing use in clinical practice of software such as mobile apps and clinical decision support (CDS) software has only recently been taken up by regulators around the world. Specifically, the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have updated their regulatory framework in the last years. Van Laere et al have given an extensive overview of the European and US approaches to regulate CDS software. This commentary further discusses regulatory differences between the two geographies and their impact on manufacturers of medical device software. We discuss the practical implementation of the regulatory framework for medical device software (especially CDS software) with a reference to the available international guidance documents and their limitations. Given the direction of stricter regulatory oversight in Europe, additional European guidelines/examples are desirable to enable a pragmatic regulatory approach ensuring continued access to innovative medical device software for European patients.

What decades of policies aimed at agricultural water pollution can teach us about agricultural climate change mitigation: a US perspective

The Inflation Reduction Act has catalyzed resources for climate change mitigation in several sectors of the US economy, including agriculture. As these activities ramp up, a clear delineation of the US approach to agricultural climate mitigation is emerging. Practices and policy frameworks are similar to those used to address water quality concerns from agriculture, which started in the 1970s. In fact, some of the programs being deployed to address climate change are the same. In both cases, policies rely on a voluntary approach and subsidies, and focus on practices not outcomes. The experience of agricultural water quality programs can provide useful insights on the effectiveness of the approach being used in agricultural climate change mitigation. Voluntary practices have generally been ineffective in improving water quality. More comprehensive policies, or at least better targeted ones, and more system-based analytical capacity are needed.

Pendekatan Indonesia dan Amerika Serikat Terhadap Proses Demokratisasi Myanmar

Pendekatan Indonesia dan Amerika Serikat Terhadap Proses Demokratisasi Myanmar

Indo-Pacific Region in the 21st Century: Geostrategy for Making or Breaking an Emergent New World Order

The world order is currently evolving and there is an evident shift as the Western-centric United States unipolar order’s is relatively weakening and its hegemony is challenged by the rising Non-Western-centric multipolar order. This is happening across different strategic geopolitical regions, including the Indo-Pacific region. The decline of a hegemony can be heralded by an increasing level of competition and conflict between different geopolitical actors in the international system, when the ‘old’ hegemonic order is not yet ‘dead’ and the ‘new’ hegemonic order is not established. A situation arises where interpretations and representations of geostrategic imperatives take place as ‘informational geopolitics’ as the various international actors seek to be subjects and not objects of the unfolding process and events, such as India that inhabits a unique position, but not without its risks. This paper analyses academic literature on those geostrategic imperatives of the different actors and finds a rather transactional US approach to maintain its hegemony and a more relational approach by actors in the emergent new world order.

Navigating the legal landscape of AI copyright: a comparative analysis of EU, US, and Chinese approaches

AbstractThis paper compares AI copyright approaches in the EU, US, and China, evaluating their effectiveness and challenges. It examines the recognition of AI-generated works as copyrightable and the exclusive rights of copyright owners to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, and perform such works. Differences in approaches, such as recognizing AI as a sui generis right holder in the EU and the broad fair use doctrine in the US, are highlighted. This paper evaluates strengths and weaknesses of each approach, including enforcement and ownership of copyright in AI-generated works, and clarifies issues related to AI and copyright. While the EU and US have more developed legal frameworks for AI copyright than China, all three approaches face challenges that need addressing. This paper concludes by providing insight into the legal landscape of AI copyright and steps necessary for effective protection and use of AI-generated works.

Maintaining Warp Speed: Policy Requirements for a Just-in-Time, Capability-Based, Scalable Medical Countermeasure Research and Development Enterprise.

Maintaining Warp Speed: Policy Requirements for a Just-in-Time, Capability-Based, Scalable Medical Countermeasure Research and Development Enterprise.

USA export control system for dual-use products

Export control — the permissive and prohibitive (licensing) procedure for carrying out foreign economic operations in relation to certain goods and technologies — occupies an important place in both the foreign economic and foreign policy of the United States. The analysis of the export control regime over dual-use products deserves special attention. The United States considers technological leadership as the basis of national security and an essential component of maintaining national competitiveness. It was in this area that the main changes took place throughout the post-war period. Currently, the development of this regime is undergoing another tightening cycle. The article analyzes the evolution of priorities and legislation of the American policy of control over the export of dual-use items, examines the transformation of the system of rules in this area in the light of new US approaches to national and international security issues, the actualization of foreign policy objectives. It is considered how the specifics of the regime allows the United States to widely use it as sanctions.

Seismic capacity and performance of code-conforming single-story RC precast buildings considering multiple limit states and damage criteria

The seismic capacity and performance of code-conforming precast buildings is assessed in the study. The case study consists in single-story precast buildings designed according to Italian building code considering low to high seismicity sites and varying both geometry layout and soil conditions. The seismic behavior of the buildings is assessed through multiple-stripe analyses performed through nonlinear three-dimensional modeling. Fragility of the buildings is computed by considering several methods, and performance evaluation is based on capacity margin ratios, failure probabilities, and reliability indexes. Damage limitation, life safety prevention, and near collapse prevention performance levels are considered by accounting for multiple damage criteria and damage states, including both local and global approaches and both ductile and brittle failure of beam-to-column connections.The paper provides guidance for implementation of seismic capacity and performance evaluation of precast buildings according to latest advances, considering both European and US approaches. The study proves that the current code prescriptions might not supply adequate seismic performance, especially in the case of more critical soil conditions (i.e., C soil type compared to A soil type). A relatively critical performance was observed for damage limitation and life safety prevention performance levels, whereas collapse performance of the buildings was adequate. The extremely critical condition associated with brittle failure of the beam-to-column connection was also confirmed. The study stresses the need for an enhancement of current design requirements and highlights the need for further investigation into the adequacy of seismic performance of precast buildings and reliability of related code-conforming design.