International Trade In Legal Services Legal System Under The Framework Of The Wto

The trade in service is more and more important in economic and trade development in the world. The trade in lawyers' service is one kind of special form of commercial trade in service, its market access is subjected to the scope of General Agreement on Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to GATS). This thesis firstly takes WTO rules on trade in lawyers' service and China's entering WTO as a background, and followed with making a comparison on the national legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' service among the WTO members, illustrating the history and current status of Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services. In the end it concentrates on the future reform and development of Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services. It includes five sections in the thesis to demonstrate the points.Section One probes into a general introduction to the international legal systems of foreign trade in lawyers' service. Firstly, it clearly illustrates the notions of lawyers' service and the trade in lawyers' service, the first of which means that according to his litigant's appoint and in the light of facts and the law, the lawyer supplies needed service activities to the litigant relying on his professional knowledge and skill, while the latter of which means that it is a kind of trade in Services and its object is lawyers' service. Then it mainly analyzes the internationalization and liberalization of trade in lawyers' service.Section Two provides a detailed description and analysis of WTO rules on trade in lawyers' service. The rules in GATS are applicable in the trade in lawyers' service. The WTO multilateral legal system of trade in legal service is composed of most-favored-nation treatment, market admission, national treatment, transparency and so on. The specific commitments of WTO parties shows their opening level to trade in legal service under the framework of GATS. The WTO correlative rules has the extreme significance to the global market in trade in legal service. The WTO rules in trade in legal service and the WTO member's specific commitments which are made to the legal service, establish the market that could not be able to retrocede but be put forward. Once the WTO member has made its commitments on the legal service, it shouldn't exert any new limitation to the WTO member's trade in legal service, or restore the cancelled limitation measures, either.Section Three makes a comparison on the national legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' service among the WTO members. This dissertation only concentrates on certain WTO members which have close economic relationship with China or are important in international trade in legal services, such as the United States, the European Union, Japan and Hongkong. The lawyers and law firms of the United States are very competent in international trade in legal services and the US is an active proponent in international legal service market. However, the level of liberalization of trade in lawyers' service is not uniform among its jurisdictions. The level of liberalization of trade in lawyers' service of EU is different, some members have high level, while others low , thus the protect tendency is obvious. Japan is one of the major industrial countries and ranks number two in economy in the world. However, its lawyers' services sector is not as strong as its economy because of its legal system of lawyers. In fact, Japan imposes various limitations on foreign lawyers' practice. Hongkong has not listed legal service sector in the GATS schedules of specific commitments, but it implements a policy more liberal than many WTO members who listed it.Section Four illustrates the current status of Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services. The rapid development of China's foreign economical trade has stimulated its demand of transnational or interstate lawyers' services. Before the accession, China had several legal documents to regulate the foreign lawyers in China. When China entered the WTO, China listed legal services in the GATS schedules of specific commitments. The current Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services needs to be improved in certain aspects. Entering WTO means our country's further opening. As a result, it fills the opportunity, and meanwhile existences challenge due to the further opening of legal service market.Section Five concentrates on the future reform and development of Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services. It is necessary to make clear the fundamental factors needed to be taken into account for the reform and development in making the decision on how to perfect the current system. On the one hand, it is imperative for China to adopt more liberal policy on foreign trade in lawyers' services, on the other, still to maintain necessary limitations. Improving the current Chinese legal system of foreign trade in lawyers' services needs to establish a system of rules encompassing admission requirements, forms of organization for practice, scope of business, practice behavior, administration and regulation, legal responsibility, encouragement for overseas development by Chinese lawyers, etc.