Researchers' Activities

Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra participated in the Taiwan Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2020: One World, One Internet, which was held on 11 and 12 November. Dr Mishra participated in the session ‘The WTO’s Digital Trade Initiative: Implications for Asian Policies’, with Erika Mann (Covington and Burlington LLP), Roy Chun Lee (Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research), and Tsai-fang Chen (National Chiao Tung University). The session was moderated by William Drake (University of Zurich).

Dr Mishra’s online presentation was based on her research on the WTO’s ongoing negotiations on e-commerce under the plurilateral Joint Statement Initiative (JSI). She discussed the various proposals made by WTO members on e-commerce, especially in the context of how the proposed trade rules will impact internet governance focussing on cross-border data flows, data localisation, privacy protection, cybersecurity and source code disclosure requirements. Thereafter, she provided her inputs on the dynamics in the negotiations between developed and developing countries as well as the ongoing tech war between the US and China. She concluded that given the divergence of perspectives on e-commerce rules among WTO members, any short-term outcomes in the ongoing JSI negotiations appear unlikely. The outcome, especially in the short run, could be a very basic agreement covering relatively uncontroversial areas such as spam, e-signatures, e-authentication, and online consumer protection. Difficult data governance issues will continue to remain unresolved.

The Centre for International Law announces the release of the APEC Handbook on Obligations in International Investment Treaties. Written by the Centre’s Head of Investment Law & Policy, N Jansen Calamita, with the support of the Australian Government, the APEC Handbook is designed to help non-specialist government officials understand investment treaty obligations and the way they are applied to the day-to-day business of government. It is the first international resource of its kind and provides a valuable tool to help host economies manage their international obligations and take steps to avoid investment treaty disputes.

Dr Neha Mishra presented her postdoctoral research on the interface of cybersecurity and international economic law at the online Geneva Trade Week. The session she participated in was titled ‘Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age: Pro Innovation Domestic and International Governance for Digitally Enabled Services’, and was sponsored by the Institute for International Trade at the University of Adelaide, and Trade and Investment in Services Associates. Her co-panellists were Jane Drake-Brockman (moderator), Hildegunn Nordas, Pascal Kerneis and Bryan Mercurio.

Her presentation focussed on two points:
(i) Trade and cybersecurity can share a symbiotic relationship, but the economic costs to digital trade is very high when countries impose restrictive unilateral cybersecurity laws, regulations and policies. Such measures are also dangerous for global cybersecurity governance.
(ii) International trade agreements have an impact on both the domestic and global cybersecurity regulatory framework. International trade agreements can check protectionism by ‘disguised cybersecurity measures’ and thereby create more open, competitive conditions for global digital trade. International trade agreements can play a facilitative role based on the symbiotic relationship of trade and cybersecurity.

Dr Mishra highlighted that trade institutions can facilitate international regulatory cooperation and create a more robust environment for digital trade, by encouraging interoperability of data regulations and standards, and transparent, open, representative, globally competitive and market-driven cybersecurity standards and best practices.

Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra has been awarded the 2020 University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for her doctoral thesis, ‘When Data Flows Across Borders: Aligning International Trade Law with Internet Policy Objectives’. The prestigious prize is awarded for scholarly excellence, international recognition and impact of the research, and the University of Melbourne confers the annual award to six PhD graduates from different disciplines. Dr Mishra was supervised by Professors Tania Voon and Andrew Mitchell.

On 29 May 2020, Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra spoke on ‘International Trade Law: Implications for Data Governance’ on a public webinar organised by Ikigai Law, a leading technology law firm based in India. The session focussed on the growing incidence of privacy and cybersecurity measures that impede trans-border flows of digital data, and the ways that international trade rules could be applied to discipline such measures. In particular, Dr Mishra spoke on the role of the exceptions in international trade agreements in balancing trade liberalisation goals with internet policy goals. This session also highlighted the role of international trade agreements in promoting good internet governance and the political economy of data localisation measures, especially in India.

Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra co-authors UNESCAP Paper on “Digital Trade Integration in Preferential Trade Agreements”

On 18 May 2020, Postdoctoral Fellow Charalampos Giannakopoulos presented his paper ‘Coherence, Reflective Thinking, and Investment Arbitration’ at the Online International Economic Law Research Marathon 2020, which was hosted virtually by the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The online conference on 17–29 May replaced the 9th PEPA-SIEL Conference 2020. PEPA-SIEL conferences provide an environment for emerging academics and professionals in the field of international economic law to present and discuss their research.

Drawing from the work of authors such as John Dewey and Donald Schön, Dr Giannakopoulos argued that reflection and reflective thinking are manifestations of an ideal of coherence in the justificatory aspect of adjudication. Reflective thinking involves iterative processes of problem setting, identifying possible solutions, and testing them for their congruence with one’s background theories. Transposed to adjudication, this implies that judicial reasoning involves a constant process of experimentation in practice, by posing hypotheses (framing), testing them, and assessing their consequences for their congruence with the decision-maker’s considered judgments regarding the regime’s ends and his or her institutional role in it. Using concrete examples from investment arbitration, the paper showcases the importance of practising reflective thinking at various levels during the legal reasoning process.

Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra has been awarded the 2019 Harold Luntz Research Prize for her doctoral thesis ‘When Data Flows Across Borders: Aligning International Trade Law with Internet Policy Objectives’. The prize is awarded annually to the best thesis in Melbourne Law School. In her thesis, Dr Mishra investigated how international trade law applies to government restrictions on data flows and whether it can be aligned with their internet policy objectives. She demonstrated that such an alignment can be achieved by interpreting, applying and reforming trade rules consistent with fundamental principles of internet governance. Dr Mishra was supervised by Professor Tania Voon and Professor Andrew D Mitchell at Melbourne Law School.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Ayelet Berman has been elected Vice Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) International Organizations Interest Group for a three-year term. Next year she will take the Co-Chair position.

The ASIL’s International Organizations Interest Group is comprised of over 600 members and is a forum for dialogue among legal scholars and practitioners seeking to exchange ideas on global governance in all its diversity. 

Research Associate Professor (CIL) N Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, presented the finalised draft of APEC Handbook on Obligations in International Investment Treaties, in a side event organised by the Australian government at the 38th session of UNCITRAL Working Group III held in Vienna.

The APEC Handbook project is funded by the Australian government and is designed to assist non-specialist, front-line government officials to better understand and implement international investment commitments.