• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.337-348
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• 2020

Although the WTO has fulfilled several key tasks it was set up to do - providing periodic reviews of members' trade policies, resolving disputes, supporting negotiations - with the notable exceptions of the Trade Facilitation and Information Technology agreements, WTO members have not been able to negotiate new rules on "bread and butter" trade policies. The importance of doing so was illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic which saw widespread uncoordinated recourse to trade policy instruments. This paper highlights four reforms that would bolster the effectiveness of the WTO as a forum for trade cooperation: (1) improving collection and reporting of information on trade-related policies; (2) supporting analysis-informed deliberation to establish a common understanding of the need and scope for cooperation in specific policy areas; (3) putting in place a stronger multilateral governance framework for plurilateral cooperation between groups of WTO members; and (4) reestablishing an effective dispute settlement system.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.487-497
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• 2017

South Korea needs reorganization of dispute resolution system due to the frequent occurrence of a case that trade secret or technique are leaked. First, the distributed various laws are established and enforced by enacting and enforcing individual laws. Therefore, the redundancy problems, the collision of individual laws, the decline in diversity, integrity, and connectivity are issues. An independent legal system is needed by Act on the Prevention and Protection of Technology Leakage. Thereby, The support system of technological protection that is sprayed in government departments such as the Small and Medium Business Administration, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Patent Office, the Fair Trade Commission, the Trade Committee, the National Police Agency, and the Spy Agency integrates and unifies institutionally, and it is necessary to advance a policy with functional division. Second, the Patent Tribunal, the Invention Promotion Act, the Industrial Property Right Dispute Mediation Committee by the patent law, the Industrial Technical Dispute Mediation Committee on the Industrial Technology Outflow Prevention and Protection Law and the Medium and Small Firm Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Committee on Small Business Technology Protection Support Law are installed. However, since it established the integrated law on the Act on the Prevention and Protection of Technology Leakage, it is desirable to set the merged operation of establishment on the Technical Dispute Mediation Committee under the Small and Medium Business Administration or the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.273-288
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• 2022

This study first classifies and organizes provisions on institutional arrangements (or IAs) and dispute settlement mechanism(or DSM) in a digital trade agreement. Then it conducts a case study on seven major digital trade agreements: the CPTPP, the USJDTA, the USMCA, the ASDEA, the RCEP, the KSDPA, and the DEPA. And it finally derives implications for Korea to improve implementation of DTAs by communicating better and resolving disputes efficiently with the help of IAs and DSM-related provisions. IAs of a digital trade agreement can be defined as a set of agreements on the division of the respective responsibilities of agencies involved in implementing and enforcing the agreement, including committees, working groups, or contact points. DSM of a digital trade agreement includes consultation, mediation, arbitration, and establishment of a panel. Comparing six FTAs with an e-commerce chapter, the CPTPP, the USMCA, and the RCEP contain the most advanced type of IA provisions while the CPTPP, the USMCA, the RCEP, and the KSDPA have that of DSM provisions. Korea is its initial stage as it has only signed the KSDPA with Singapore as well as it is about to launch a new digital trade negotiation for the DEPA, the CPTPP, and even the IPEF, it is necessary to engage in negotiations with a clearer position on behalf of Korean digital companies. As provisions on IAs and DSM are important policy tools that can reflect industry concerns and convey proposals in inter-governmental dialogue, a Korean draft of the IAs and DSM-related provision should be prepared in advance.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.391-412
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• 2010

As traditional import regulations have decreased all over the world in recent decades, the usage of "unconventional" trade protection measures has grown in the developing countries. In particular, antidumping investigations have risen rapidly and have growing in India and China. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide countermeasures to our government and Korean exporting companies by studying characteristics of antidumping. India is one of the most frequent initiators of antidumping cases by protecting their industries and impeding imports from FTA. This year, economic exchanges of Korea and India will be increasing by the conclusion of CEPA. This will lead to the increase of dispute by import regulations. Under such circumstances, to decrease Indian antidumping cases Korea will respond as follows. i)If antidumping laws, system and practice of India have injustice or are different from WTO rules, our government will have to indicate injustice and actively urge Indian government to make corrections. For example, they are continuous bilateral contact about the problems, fallacy of calculation of dumping margin, and intense investigations into cause and effect relationship and losses in dumping market, ect. ii)Our government should give more support to the small and medium exporting company which have difficulties in dealing with trade conflicts, counseling, arbitrating a lawyer. iii)Our government which is in control of domestic trade relief system should strengthen its investigation ability about new regulations and moniter import regulations of India. Over the long time, Korean companies need to export competitive advantage items of a higher value-added business and build solidarity by technology transfer. Accordingly, that will result in the decrease of trade dispute in India.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.137-155
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• 2007

Since China joined the WTO, the trade between Korea and China has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, making both nations become mutually important trading partners to each other. The volume of trades with China showed a rapid upward trend with an average annual increase rate of 20% and the resultant dispute is also rising. Thus, this study was aimed to make some suggestions and come up with ways of responding claims by surveying Korean trading firms which have experience in making transactions with China to investigate the current status and the actual condition of their occurrence. As a result of this study, firstly, the main cause of such dispute was shown to be the failure to perform the agreement. Secondly, there were malty verbal agreements and due to a deterioration of trust in Chinese firms, the method of a letter of credit was adopted by many Korean firms. Thirdly, the payment and credit appeared to be most important in transactions with China. A credit inquiry is a must in future transactions with China. Fourthly, the indirect cause of the occurrence of trade claims was the difference in commercial practices and as for the way of settling disputes, the agreement through negotiations between the parties involved was the most. Fifthly, small and medium firms should make more of their credit and English proficiency than large ones do.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.153-185
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• 2006

This article deals with the Improvement of Compulsory Arbitration System on Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act in Korea. If a labor dispute occcur, the settlement of labor dispute must be reached for the parties' own accord. The autonomy of the parties concerned is the fundamental principle in the settlement of labor dispute. If the Rights Which are guaranteed by art. 33 Constitutional Law belong to civil liberties, we should consider Trade Union Act as the restriction of basic rights. Arbitration is a procedure which permits the most positive intervention by the arbitrator. It is carried out by an arbitration committe which is composed of three arbitrators appointed by the chairman of the Labor Relations Commission. Compulsory arbitration system of the labor for parties should be improved. In case of necessary public enterprises, more strict requirements on assembly for labor disputes should be prepared and the government should support institutions to prevent labor-management disputes by educating experts on labor-management relations and improving the quality of arbitration.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.3-29
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• 2020

The WTO's dispute settlement system has played a significant role in settling trade disputes between countries, and its function and role have been expanded by handling about 596 disputes since its establishment in 1995. This shows that the WTO's dispute settlement system is gaining enormous trust among member countries that it recognizes as a fair, effective, and efficient system for resolving trade disputes. The U.S. remains uncooperative in the WTO dispute settlement system, citing disregard for the 90-day deadline for appeals, continued service by persons who are no longer A.B. members, issuing advisory opinions on issues not necessary to resolve a dispute, A.B. review of facts, and review of a member's domestic law de novo. The A.B. claims its reports are entitled to be treated as a precedent. These problems should be gradually improved through various discussions and agreements by establishing a multilateral forum for resolving disputes and gradually ending the problems through reform of the DSU.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.139-158
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• 2018

As trade volume increases and the business environment becomes more complex and competitive, international trade disputes are also increasing and becoming more complex. Parties need to become more aware of alternatives to costly and time consuming arbitration and litigation. The ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) can encompass all dispute resolution processed and can act as a substitute for traditional litigation. Mediation, a type of ADR, offers an amicable dispute settlement mechanism between concerned parties through a natural mediator. There are several strong points of mediation compared with litigation or arbitration. First of all, mediation can take place without having to complete time-consuming and expensive discovery processes associated with litigation. In addition, since mediation is considered a private process, the dispute can remain out of the public eye. It can be embarrassing and disrupt business when customer or suppliers learn that a company is involved in litigation. Lastly, mediation is less adversarial than litigation or arbitration, so the parties often can salvage their relationships. Often the parties to mediation find themselves continuing to conduct business. In spite of such benefits of mediation, it is less used in Korea and therefore, this article aims to promote the mediation system in international trade disputes. However, this paper has limitation, for example, why ADR is not used well in Korea and need to suggest how ADR can work best in international trade disputes.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-91
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• 2005

It is well recognized that the availability of prompt, effective and economical means of dispute resolution is an important element in the orderly growth and encouragement of international trade and investment. Increasingly, ADR(Alternative Dispute Resolution) including arbitration and mediation, instead of litigation in national courts, has become the preferred means of resolving private international commercial disputes. Under the situation, efforts for settlement of trade and investment disputes by ADR have been made between Korea and China through trade and investment agreements and arbitration agreement. Judging from the importance of economic exchange between Korea and Qingdao including Shandong Province, The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board(KCAB) and The Qingdao Arbitration Commission(QAC) should strengthen mutual cooperation to develop efficient methods of resolving commercial disputes arising between the two countries and to assist parties in solving those disputes through conclusion of arbitral agreement. Recently, efforts for conclusion of a Korea-China-Japan Free Trade Agreement(FTA) received strong support at Korea-Japan and Korea-China Summit Meeting held on June and July, 2003 respectively. If the conclusion of FTA among the three countries would be realized, it would promote regional trade and investment, contributing to economic growth in the Northeast Asian region. Under the circumstances, the key arbitral institutions including KCAB and QAC should consider to take the initiative in setting up tentatively called ${\ulcorner}$Joint Arbitration Center for Northeast Asia${\lrcorner}$ for which the CAMCA of NAFTA will be the good example.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.27-66
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• 2005

From the reunification of Germany we can learn much for the reunification of Korea. That particularly applies for the dispute resolution of the trade relations between both states. The domestic trade relation, which was the only contractually regulated relation between two states for a long period of time, played a crucial role in the reunification of Germany, In this research paper, we examine how the economic disputes in divided Germany had been settled, and consider for the amicable economic relations between south and north Korea, what can we learn from that. In Germany, the disputes from the trade relations could be settled via the civil procedure, because the judicial codes of both German states were the same until 1975, However, that does not apply in Korea, as two Koreas have another law and another court system, from the start. We argue that arbitration is the best way for the completion of the economic disputes. Besides the general advantages of the arbitral procedure, the arbitration is particularly suitable to regulate the economic disputes from Korea-Korea relations, because of glaring differences of the legal status and reality of both countries. Furthermore, the standing arbitral tribunals would be in the economic relations between two Koreas more effectively than the ad-hoc arbitral tribunals. The ad-hoc arbitration generally requires a lot of time to setting up an arbitral Oibunal. For the rapid and obligatory settlement of dispute, the Convention of Currency, Economic and Social Union between West and East Germany 1990(Staatsvefrag zur Wahrungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialunion zwischen der Bundesrepublik und der DDR) also planned the institutional arbitration. The organizational support of the internal-Korean arbitration can take place via already existing institution, namely in south Korea 'The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board' Periodic decision reports and publication of substantial awards at the early stage seem appropriate.