International Trade In Services Research, A Number Of Issues With The Chinese Legal Services Market

After China entered into the WTO in 2001,the trade in services becomes one of the most affected areas of the economy,and trade-related legal services and legal construction inevitably become the focus of legislatures and legal service agencies.Therefore,the author will try to study the trade in legal services,especially the rules of the trade-related legal service,and explore the effect to the legal services market with China's accession to the WTO,thoroughly analyze the opportunities and challengers brought by legal services,that is much significant for us to deal with the legislation,reform and abolishment of relevant law and regulations, for us to reinforce legal construction,for us to speed up reform and development of our legal services,and make China's legal services enjoying an important position in the trade in international services,and make China's lawyers becoming more competitive in the home and abroad market.This paper studies the legal services system of China and its reform and development at the basis of legal system of international trade in services.The detailed frameworks are as follows:Chapter 1:The elucidation of legal system of international trade in services.Section one of the chapter defines and analyze essences and characteristics of some important definitions such as services,trade in services,international trade in services and simply generalizes the present status of international trade in services.Section two of the chapter clarifies the basic contents and important significance of General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS),which includes the basic framework,the principles,the specific rights and responsibilities of GATS.GATS is the first legal framework document relevant to trade in services under international trade system,which up to now is the first systematic international legal document,and which's enactment is an important milestone in international trade in services,GATS enlarges the application scope of GATT.Chapter 2:The analysis of development trend of international trade in services.Section one of the chapter explores the disputes and unresolved problems of trade in services in the Uruguay Round negotiations on trade in services.The field of trade in services is much bigger than the one of trade in goods,and so are their distinctions of characteristics.GATS only made a preliminary framework for the liberalization of trade in services, and many problems have not been solved.The road to liberalization of trade in services will be longer than the road to liberalization of trade in goods.Section two of the chapter chiefly explores the new trade negotiation of "Doha Round" started by the WTO,which deals with the Article 14 and 19 stipulated in the GATS.All members of GATS take an active to join in the negotiation of liberalization of trade in services,the developed and developing countries confess that the issues of realizing international division of labor and liberalization of trade are important contents of economic globalization.The section still explores the specific proceeding negotiation,framework agreements signed,the basic stances of the U.S.,EU,Japan,and developing countries refer to the issue of liberalization of trade in services.The section also generalizes China's stances about all issues.Chapter 3:Exploration of legal system of international trade in legal services.Section one of the chapter firstly analyzes present status of international trade in legal services,carefully explores the definition of international trade in legal services,the relations between GATS and international trade in legal services,and the market trend of legal services. The section also makes a comparative study refer to the opening up issue of legal services abroad.According to the promises and practices of all members in the Uruguay Round,three obstacles refer to the market opening up of legal services exist,including market access,national treatment,local control.The section two of the chapter makes a serious exploration to above three issues.The market access deals with the issues if or not and at what patterns the legal services suppliers of all members be allowed to access the other member's market,national treatment of legal services includes two aspects.One is the balance of law practicing rights and responsibilities between agencies abroad and local lawyer firms,the other is the balance of rights and responsibilities between lawyers abroad and local lawyers.The local control includes the rules about professional qualifications and professional ethics.According to economics theories, section three mainly makes a legal economic analysis against market access and deal cost of international trade in legal services.Chapter 4:The analysis of impact to China's legal services market by opening up the legal services market abroad.Section one of the chapter firstly analyze the status of China's legal services market.The number of lawyers in China is ever increasing now,and their service ability is also improving dramatically.Compared to developed countries,the number of lawyers is still less;law firms are of smaller size.The organization forms of law firms are changing but still less and simple,and affording muck risk. The lawyers' business is developing without delay,the services market is opening up to various fields in the society.The developing velocity of legal services is proportional to ones of economic development in a region. Non-litigious legal affairs have not been treated as enough serious by lawyers in legal services,and unbalance legal services in regions are still existed,lawyers and law firms often break laws or regulations.China's lawyer control system has become ones of "Two Combination Control System" between the guiding and supervision of judicial administrative agencies and the Bar Association's professional management,which experienced a development from pure judicial administrative management to main judicial administrative management with the help of the Bar Association.Section two analyzes the impacts to legal services in China by opening up legal services market abroad.China has made some specific promises such as the forms of cross-border supplying services,the forms of cross-border consuming,the cross-border movement of natural persons,the forms of commercial presence refer to opening up legal services market abroad in the entrance documents of WTO,which chiefly deal with the limitations to national treatment and market access.Many agencies of lawyers from foreign countries or Hong Kong of China are permitted to set up to supply legal services about foreign countries with a better development,at the same time Chinese law firms are also developing the market abroad.An opened market of Chinese legal services is helpful to create a better legal environment for Chinese lawyer profession,is helpful to enlarge the legal services market and force lawyers to become more competitive,is helpful to speed up the internationalization of Chinese lawyer's profession.The agencies of foreign law firms with their rich experience and capital are a great challenger of Chinese lawyers after their access to China.The long-term existed separations of legislations,line of business,regions of present legal services market seriously disturb the legal services market,and become a barrier to connect the market domestic and abroad.The opened legal services market abroad possibly causes some policies and legal risks yet.Chapter 5:Reform and improvement of China legal services profession control system.Section one of the chapter discusses the structure and structure's adjustment of lawyers' organization.The section one makes a deep exploration of the industrialization's necessity and essence of Chinese lawyer profession,the organization forms and capital system of law firms,and the running mechanism of industrialization of Chinese lawyer profession's development.The industrialized reform is available to Chinese law firms in order to achieve their pluralistic organization forms and to co-ordinate their scale and structure,to realize their professionalizing of knowledge structure.To change external mechanism such as the policy-supporting systems of industrialized development of law firms and the operation mechanism of legal services market is still necessary for the industrialized development of lawyer profession.The present control system of Chinese lawyers is not available for the dynamic and systematic demand to control lawyers,and the demand of market economy.To perfect the "two combination" system is the main task of deepening reform and promoting renovation of the lawyer control system.To improve the management of lawyer profession by judicial administrative agencies,to promote seriously "three changes" of management function,to set up and perfect the profession control system which will be depended by the Bar Association,to call for lawyers' self-control and correctly deal with the relations between macro management of judicial administrative agencies and professional management of the Bar Association,to establish the independence rule of lawyer profession and to strengthen the self-control consciousness of law firms,to set up and perfect the supervision system of state taxation agencies and state audit agencies,etc.to set up and perfect the social monitoring system,to adjust and regulate the market of legal services,to set up the lawyer's honest system and evaluation system,etc.are all necessary.It is an inevitable requirement for China's lawyer profession's development during the further opening up the market of legal services. The economic globalization not only brings a new challenge for the legal system at home and abroad,but also calls for a new demand for the forms, contents and scale of legal services,which only will be achieved in a better forms and advanced international legal services market.The further opening up of legal services is necessary,but should keep a certain way to steadily open up it.China should make a mid or long term program under its circumstances to steadily open up its scale and extent of legal services market,meantime still protect the benefit of China's lawyers and legal services market,to through a competition and cooperation promote China's lawyer profession a forward development at a globalizing and modernizing track.