Study On The Application Of WTO Security Exceptions

Security exceptions clause plays an important role in balancing free trade and national security.The ambiguity of the text of the clause and the strictness of the applicable conditions make it extremely difficult to be applied in practice.It is proposed in the traditional security standard,which attaches importance to military security.Without developing interpretation of treaty,it will not be applicable to the new security situation such as network security.With the emergence of events such as"stuxnet" and cyber-attacks in Estonia,"cyber warfare" has become a potential crisis in the field of cyber security.The concealment and multinational of network and the concealment and latency of network problems make it necessary to implement regulations and governance.The contracting parties have the right to take actions,but the conditions must be'essential security interests".Therefore,WTO should have the right to review the application of security exceptions.At the same time,every country should take measures when facing danger of national security.How to balance the relationship between cyber security and free trade?The existence of security exceptions is particularly important.With the frequency of network security issue in internet trade,it is necessary and possible to apply security exceptions.Cyber security is a new security situation.Internet trade is a new pattern of trade.In order to make security exceptions more flexible with the going of time,it is necessary to give it new dimension by the evolutionary interpretation.Cyber security is also an important part of essential security interests to country.In emergency in international relations,cyber-attacks and cyber-wars will threaten the military security and political security of the country.The application of security exceptions often involves important national security issues.The potential self-judging nature of the exceptions clause is a cause for concern but it is textually supported by the word "it".At the same time,the development of connotation does not mean that the scope of application of'the clause is unlimited.Therefore,restrictive measure such as "necessity test",good faith principle and notification procedure should be adopted.This paper applies the method of "developing interpretation" proposed by scholars to the interpretation and analysis of the clause.Combining with the perspective of internet trade,this paper demonstrates the inevitability and possibility of the application of cyber security in internet trade and draws conclusions applicable.The development of connotation of security exceptions may also lead to more chances in abuse of provisions and restrict the development of free trade.In addition,network regulation measures in China have always been the target of public criticism.However,in consideration of internet trade and network development,network regulation is indeed necessary.Cyber-war between countries may become a new "battlefield" for competition between countries.Therefore,we can invoke security exceptions appropriately to defend the network regulation measures in Internet trade,and formulate security exceptions in the process of treaties formulation and modification.In addition,we should speed up the improvement of China's network security legislation,and abandon the rules which are discriminatory and non-conforming.Improve the transparency of legislation,at the same time,strengthen the voice of network governance,and promote the construction of a new order of the Internet energetically.The first part of this paper studies the overview of the security exceptions clause,including the background,the content and the provisions of the clause in WTO.The second part analysis challenges caused by network regulation of security exceptions combined internet trade.First,it analysis the necessity of internet regulation and dilemma in international law,by gathering application of the security exceptions.summarizes the security problems of security exceptions in internet trade disputes.The third part plays an important role in this paper.It mainly solves why and how to apply the security exceptions in network trade.First of all,applying evolutionary interpretation proposed by scholars on the basis of article 31 of the Vienna Convention,interpret the connotation of security exceptions in the new situation.Then conclude that it can be applied to network security under certain conditions.In this part,efforts are made to balance the flexibility and strictness of the security exceptions,the relationship between free trade and national security,developed countries and developing countries,to maintain the "safety valve" function of the security exceptions and prevent the abuse of the provision through mandatory notification procedures and inversion of burden of proof.In the end,on the premise of solving the above problems,discusses China's attitude towards network regulation and security exceptions,as well as efforts to improve the problems domestically and take on the responsibility internationally.