Research On The Exception Clause Of Cross-border Data Flow In International Economic And Trade Agreements

Historically,exceptions exist in ancient Roman law,early canon law,various religious rules,and the precepts of just war theory.Even absolute legal and ethical rules recognize the need for a suspension in certain cases.Exceptions are common in international agreements that allow governments to legally violate their commitments to deal with accidents.While such institutional designs are likely to erode the credibility of treaties,they enhance the survival of international agreements by adding some discretion for national policy makers.As a special resource,data can provide private value not only to the people who collect and control the data,but also to provide social value to the whole economy.The digital economy is based on the flow of data,and how to manage and use the proliferation of data to flow freely across the world is a big challenge.The multidimensional characterization of the data has led to countries’ divergent regulatory and policy approaches to data collection,storage,and transfer.In order to develop the potential commercial value of big data,the governance of cross-border data flows through trade agreements has become a mainstream trend.Any international framework governing cross-border data flows must complement and align the corresponding domestic policies with them,pursuing a balance between rights,interests and values.As an important means to restrict cross-border data flow,the exception clause is designed to meet the national policy considerations of data security and personal privacy protection crisis under the background of "digital divide",and to play its specific functions in the field of cross-border data flow.From the perspective of a new generation of international economic and trade agreements,this paper studies the exception clauses of cross-border data flow.This thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter I analyzes the necessity of the design of the flexibility mechanism of the treaty,so as to lead to the exception clauses in the international agreement.The introduction of the origin of exceptional clauses and the development and history of exceptional clauses of trade agreements is made through the concept of "necessity" of early Roman law and church law.Chapters II and III examine the functions of exceptions in the field of cross-border data flows,the impact on domestic data security and personal data protection,and the necessity and importance of their regulation.Chapter II analyzes the threats and challenges posed by cross-border data flows to network data security and data sovereignty,and summarizes the policies made by different countries such as Russia,China and India to limit the flow of data and the disputes caused by them.Chapter III introduces the historical origin of personal privacy protection from the basic theories of personal privacy protection in Europe and the United States.It analyzes the personal information and data protection systems such as the Information Privacy Law and the General Data Protection Regulations of the European Union(GDPR)of the European Union.Given the different regulatory models that countries make for cross-border data flows,regional and free trade agreements have become the main testing ground for countries to participate in global data governance.Chapter IV summarizes the general and exceptional provisions of such regional trade agreements,such as the CPTPP,the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement(USMCA),the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP),Digital Economy Partnership Agreement(DEPA)and Investment Projection Agreement Between The European Union and Its member States,of The One Part,and The Republic of Singapore,of The Part,taking CPTPP,to which China has applied for accession,as an example,the interpretation and application of the "legal public policy objective exception" and "security exception" clauses are analyzed.