Acknowledgments
This book pursues the research question of how we should consider the trend of datafication – under which most dimensions of our lives are being transformed into data to create value – through the lens of international economic law. My initial intention was to provide a book-length treatment with a holistic assessment of the WTO Joint Initiative on E-commerce. But it soon became clear that what really interested me was the broader question of the interplay between datafication and international trade agreements. Having studied international trade law and digital technology governance for more than twenty years, I believe this is an optimal time to map out the dynamic questions posed by the data-driven economy and corresponding regulatory approaches with a fresh eye, and to capture the emerging shape of global trade governance in a datafied world. This book can therefore be seen as the accumulation and culmination of my enduring research interests in the interface between the digital revolution, national regulations, and international economic legal order. The framing of this book – the chapters of which are connected by the many facets of “data” – allows me to bring these various angles together in a more coherent context, which journal articles and book chapters cannot achieve.
National Tsing Hua University has been wonderfully supportive of my work. I am indebted to many colleagues here in Tsing Hua who, in one way or another, placed me in the position to complete this book. I owe so much to Yi-long Huang, who has served as an invaluable mentor throughout my academic journey. I am grateful to Shih-Chang Hung for his sage guidance and advice over the years. I thank my colleagues who worked with me at the Institute of Law for Science and Technology and the College of Technology Management, particularly Ching-Fu Lin, Han-Wei Liu, and Galit Shmueli, for their enjoyable collaboration on interdisciplinary projects. In Taiwan, special thanks go to Chang-fa Lo and Connie Guang-Hwa Yang, whom I have had the privilege of working with and learning from. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the National Science and Technology Council for its funding support of this book project.
This book has incorporated a number of different sources. My former governmental experience of serving as a telecommunications regulator in Taiwan helped to form my perspectives on complex regulatory issues. The ideas and arguments put forward in this book have been developed through many presentations and panel discussions at workshops and conferences, where I have benefited from productive conversations with scholars and practitioners. In particular, comments and questions from Lucian Cernat, Anupam Chander, Dan Ciuriak, Henry Gao, Aik Hoe Lim, Hamid Mamdouh, Bryan Mercurio, Neha Mishra, Andrew Mitchell, Pierre Sauvé, Gregory Shaffer, Thomas Streinz and Rolf Weber have insightfully informed my thinking on the issues explored in this book.
Parts of Chapters 1 and 5 were first published by Oxford University Press as “The Uneasy Interplay between Digital Inequality and International Economic Law” (2022) 33(1) European Journal of International Law 205–235. The valuable insights provided by Joseph Weiler and Chantal Thomas through the EJIL Symposium on Inequalities and International Law have guided me in carefully reflecting upon the topic. Parts of Chapter 2 were first published by Cambridge University Press as “Digital Economy and National Security: Contextualizing Cybersecurity-Related Exceptions” (2023) 117 AJIL Unbound 122. The feedback from the reviewers of the AJIL Unbound Symposium on Digital Trade – notably, Anne van Aaken and Mira Burri – was most thoughtful and helpful. Additionally, some parts of this book draw upon but substantially modify and extend materials in my previously published articles. These articles include “Private Cybersecurity Standards? Cyberspace Governance, Multistakeholderism, and the (Ir)relevance of the TBT Regime” and “Renegotiate the WTO Commitments? Technological Change and Treaty Interpretation,” published in Cornell International Law Journal; “The Legality of Data Residency Requirements: How Can the Trans-Pacific Partnership Help?” and “GATS and the Over-the-Top Services: A Legal Outlook,” published in the Journal of World Trade; and “Digital Trade,” published in the Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law. I am grateful to the editors and reviewers of these articles for their comments, which have led me to reframe, refine, and more fully develop the arguments presented in this book.
My heartfelt thanks are for Charles Irish who awoke my interest in international trade law and policy during my studies at UW-Madison Law School. The book has also been enriched through my engagement with many experts and friends in the community of international economic law over the years, especially Tomer Broude, Julien Chaisse, Won-mog Choi, Holger Hestermeyer, Meredith Kolsky Lewis, Gabrielle Marceau, Junji Nakagawa, Colin Picker, Lisa Toohey, Isabelle Van Damme, Peter Van den Bossche, Markus Wagner, Heng Wang, and Weihuan Zhou.
My sincere gratitude goes to Tom Randall, Sharon McCann, Gemma Smith, and the rest of the team at Cambridge University Press for their support and guidance throughout the process. Special thanks to Hsiang-lin Chiu and Yi-hsuan Chen for their research assistance, and to Nancy Dugan for proofreading the manuscript. I am also thankful to the anonymous readers of the book proposal for their constructive insights, and to Pierre Sauvé, Anne van Aaken, and Tania Voon for their generous comments on the back cover. Last, but most profoundly, I would like to thank my family for their love and support.
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