On December 21, 2009, the World Trade Organization (WTO) rejected a Chinese appeal of the organization's previous ruling that the country could not use censorship as a justification for barriers on trade. The WTO ruled that China had produced no evidence to show that the panel erred in its original ruling. The decision was a response to a US complaint that Chinese controls on US imports of books, music, and audiovisual materials effectively forced US companies to conduct business with only those state-owned companies that had reserved the right to import certain types of entertainment media. The WTO had previously ruled in January 2009 that China was in violation of several international intellectual property standards, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Learn more about China and the laws governing censorship from the JURIST news archive, and read commentary on the Chinese appeal of US media imports from JURIST Guest Columnist Edward Alden in Hotline.

Also on This Day at Law:


President Bush signed bill extending jurisdiction for genocide committed abroad
Nepalese Supreme Court ended discrimination against gays, transgendered