Wto Law On Trade In Services Research

The globalization of economy promotes cross-border transactions, which need full range of high quality cross-border legal services. Trade in legal services already become an important part of international trade in services. GATS, taking effect after the Uruguay Round, has bring legal services, together with other service sectors, into the track of liberalization. The current Doha Round negotiations push the global legal services on the verge of further liberalization. At the time when legal practitioners expect to expand their legal services, some problems need to be dealt with, i.e. how the negotiating members will schedule their respective commitments to further liberalize trade in legal services, and how the traditional national authorities on legal practices, facing the enhancing erosion of national regulation autonomy, effectively regulate legal profession, especially expanding cross-border legal practices. This thesis starts to introduce the background of global trade in legal services and the effects of GATS of WTO legal framework on trade in legal services, and then this work seeks to study and analyze the history and status of the current legal services negotiations. In particular, it is devoted to the study of classification and definition of legal services, the effects of GATS IV(4) on the domestic regulation of legal services, and the application of the Disciplines on Domestic Regulation in the Accountancy Sector to legal services and the problem of "core value" of legal profession. Lastly, it studies the opening and regulation of Chinese legal services market. By these studies in legal services negotiation, the author considers that the problems addressed in this work could be resolved;that the existing legal services trade barriers can be removed or reduced largely by the revision of schedules and development of domestic regulation on legal services;that foreign lawyers will have full access to provide legal services on foreign law and international law;and that foreign law firms will have the capacity to provide full range of legal services for their clients by employing local lawyers or associating with local law firms. In addition, complete exclusion of practices on host country law could be relaxed in the future, as foreign lawyer may be able to supply advisory services on host country law by way of acquiring full admission to the bar. China is able to ensure fast development of its legal services industry and winning its share in the liberalization of legal services market by effective reform of domestic regulation system and proper opening-up arrangement.