Norm entrepreneurship in digital trade: the Singapore-led wave of digital trade agreements

Rulemaking in digital trade is proceeding apace. Many preferential trade agreements contain dedicated e-commerce or digital trade chapters and some states have entered into stand-alone digital economy agreements. This article seeks to establish whether, and to what extent, normative change is occurring in digital trade agreements, the nature of any changes, and identify which states are acting as norm entrepreneurs. We employ a new method of legal coding, systematically comparing the nature and prescriptiveness of digital provisions in 12 trade agreements concluded between 2019 and 2023. We find evidence of substantial policy innovation, and identify Singapore as the key norm entrepreneur. A new wave of ‘Singapore-led’ agreements substantially expands the scope of digital trade, to cover areas such as digital identities, e-invoicing and e-payments, the governance of AI, and regulation of new digital technologies. Commitments are typically couched as soft rather than hard law, reflecting the nascent stages of rulemaking. Norm entrepreneurship on the part of Singapore and its allies reflects a desire to position themselves as ‘digital hubs’ in the global economy, spur rulemaking in areas where innovation is ahead of regulation, and promote digital interconnectivity at time of regulatory divergence and geopolitical rivalry

Marco Civil vs.Copyright Reform: a comparative study

In 2009, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice partnered with the academic organisation Center for Technology and Society of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, to build a platform for a public consultation about a draft bill on Internet user rights - the “Internet Bill of Rights”, or Marco Civil da Internet. A year later, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture put in place a similar process of public consultation for improving the copyright legislation - Copyright Forum - Fórum de Direito Autoral. Both, the Marco Civil and the Copyright Reform public consultations, were innovative exercises in the use of ICTs for improving citizen participation in law making. After the public consultation and other institutional measures, the Marco Civil was finally approved by Congress in 2014. By contrast, the bill resulting from the public consultation on Copyright Reform was never taken to Congress. This case study compares and contrasts the processes followed by these two participatory exercises. It analyses on the role played by different agents engaged in ICT-mediated citizen engagement, and new information and communication structures and their uses. The study highlights that both draft bills faced three distinct group of challenges: infrastructure, an enabling discussion environment and responsiveness.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

A tale of two consultations: online participatory practices in Brazil

When it comes to ICT-mediated governance participation in Brazil, Internet penetration still remains a major challenge, with only around half of homes having connectivity. Opportunities to influence public policy frameworks and government strategies through the Internet, or even through offline interaction, are limited. A worsening of the political and economic situation, and the lack of strong institutionalisation of direct participation have contributed to the decline of participation initiatives in Brazil. This paper gives an overview of the state of ICT-mediated citizen participation in Brazil. It looks at two online consultation processes, Marco da Civil Internet and Copyright Reform, initiated by the government to understand the impact of citizen participation through technology on governance in Brazil.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Planejamento urbano do futuro, dados do presente: a proteção da privacidade no contexto das cidades inteligentes

Cities around the world today deal with situations in which an ever-increasing amount of citizen-generated data is used for urban planning and management purposes, with the potential to stimulate citizen engagement and participation, to promote inclusion, and to make communities more efficient, liveable and just. At the same time, advances in the science of re-identification, trade of personal data, and big-time analytics bring with them concerns about the collection, use, sharing, and disposal of data, processes that must be surrounded by caution. As new technologies generate more data than ever before, how to seize the opportunities brought to the cities, while preserving individual privacy and building public confidence? What experiences have been brought by cities that have faced this challenge? And how can Brazilian cities navigate between data-use initiatives that bring benefits to citizens, such as resource savings and increased efficiency of city government, but which can come with a significant cost of privacy? This article seeks to explore these issues, discussing international and national cases, in which the tension between the growing use of data by the so-called smart cities and the protection of citizens’ privacy is present.As cidades ao redor do mundo vivenciam hoje experiências nas quais uma quantidade cada vez maior de dados gerados pelos cidadãos é usada para fins de gestão e planejamento urbano, com potencial para estimular o engajamento e a participação cidadã, promover a inclusão e tornar as comunidades mais eficientes, habitáveis e justas. Ao mesmo tempo, os avanços na ciência da reidentificação, nos mercados de dados e na análise de big data, trazem consigo preocupações quanto a atividades de coleta, uso, compartilhamento e descarte de dados, processos que devem estar cercados de cautela. À medida que novas tecnologias geram mais dados do que nunca, como aproveitar as oportunidades trazidas para as cidades, preservando a privacidade individual e construindo a confiança do público? Quais as experiências vivenciadas por cidades que depararam com esse desafio? E como as cidades brasileiras podem navegar entre iniciativas de uso de dados que acarretam benefícios aos cidadãos, como a economia de recursos e o aumento de eficiência da administração pública das cidades, mas que podem cobrar um custo significativo de privacidade? Este artigo busca explorar essas questões, apoiando-se na discussão de experiências internacionais e nacionais em que se faz presente a tensão entre o crescente uso de dados pelas chamadas cidades inteligentes e a proteção da privacidade dos cidadãos

Competencia en cadenas globales de valor en el sector de alimentos: un análisis del caso brasileño

El artículo examina la relación entre la realización de los derechos económicos y sociales y la regulación de los mercados basada en el derecho de la competencia y sus funciones en la realización del derecho a la alimentación en Brasil. Considerando el papel constitutivo del derecho en la economía política y sus instituciones, examinamos cómo la defensa de la competencia cumple funciones de facilitación o restricción de las actividades económicas, a partir de investigaciones jurisprudenciales sobre la actuación de la autoridad brasileña de defensa de la competencia en el sector de alimentos. Se verifica que, en el caso brasileño, existe la necesidad de un reconocimiento más explícito de la defensa de la competencia como herramienta de regulación económica y social, así como una discusión más detallada sobre los patrones típicos de competencia en el sector de alimentos, especialmente en las cadenas globales de valor. Se argumenta que el análisis antimonopolio sea más estructural, identificando los vínculos y las relaciones económicas en la cadena de valor de los alimentos, así como su impacto en los precios y otras variables clave, además de centrarse en los mercados relevantes y las superposiciones horizontales

Exposición infantil a plastificantes potencialmente tóxicos en productos de uso oral

Objetivo. Determinar la prevalencia en el uso de productos infantiles orales entre menores de tres años de edad y medir su concentración de ftalatos, sustancias potencialmente tóxicas. Material y métodos. Se realizó, en 1999, una entrevista domiciliaria a 199 madres de niños del área metropolitana de la ciudad de Toluca. Por cromatografía de gases se identificaron y cuantificaron diversos ftalatos de productos de uso oral empleados por los niños participantes y se estimó la contribución de estas fuentes a la ingesta diaria de ftalatos. Resultados. La prevalencia de uso de estos productos fue de 13%, siendo mayor entre los niños, menores de 18 meses de edad, pertenecientes al estrato socioeconómico bajo. Las concentraciones variaron desde trazas hasta 67.0% del peso. La exposición media calculada proveniente de los productos manufacturados con policloruro de vinilo y ftalatos fue de 13.94 mg/ kg de peso/día, IC 95% (9.08, 18.89). Conclusiones. La exposición a ftalatos proveniente de productos para chupar o morder se encuentra dentro de los límites reportados en otros países; sin embargo, otras fuentes pueden incrementarla. Dado que algunos ftalatos han mostrado ser tóxicos en el sistema reproductivo, y este potencial efecto es plausible en el hombre, es necesaria la investigación de otras fuentes y determinar la exposición total a través de biomarcadores

Addressing the climate gap in digital technologies

Published online: 20 November 2023Key points • The critical issue of climate impacts has been largely overlooked in global discussions concerning the digital economy. • Cryptocurrency, in particular, is associated with staggering energy use statistics. In an average year, Bitcoin consumes more energy than Finland. • Difficulties regulating digital energy use stem from the non-centralised, possibly anonymised and/or non-proprietary structures and global nature of many digital operations. • Digital platforms have information about the usage of digital services that, if shared with policymakers and researchers, could facilitate the development of sustainable solutions for digital value chains and beyond • Policymakers must act to bridge sustainability policy and digital policy initiatives and ensure that policies reduce the environmental footprint stemming from life-cycle effects of digital technologies. • A key plank of such policy coordination should be the strengthening and mainstreaming of a principle of data minimization