This article discusses and contextualizes the very recent advancements in digital trade regulation based on the insights provided by the Trade Agreement Provisions on Electronic-commerce and Data (TAPED) dataset. Within the time frame of January 2020 to November 2023 that we analyze, digital trade negotiations have increased in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) significantly, and there has been a sharp rise in the negotiation of new types of treaties, known as ‘Digital Economy Agreements’. Beyond the critical advances in substantive rulemaking, we observe non-traditional actors stepping into the gap left by the shifting interest of traditional rulemakers to craft rules that best fit their policy priorities. Additionally, we see a broadening of topics beyond conventional digital trade matters, underscored by commitments of limited legal enforceability. The TAPED dataset has been updated to reflect these recent developments, emphasizing the importance of regular reviews to stay current and accurately inform research and policymaking in the area of digital trade regulation.

The Article explores the transformations triggered by digitalization in the domain of global trade law and seeks to evaluate the nature and the effects of the unfolding legal adaptation in this field of international law. For this purpose, the Article starts by mapping the sweeping effects of digitalization on trade and trade policies. It then turns to the current regulatory framework for digital trade—first, by sketching the state of affairs in the multilateral forum of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and second, by analyzing the more deliberate regulatory responses to the challenge of digitalization formulated in free trade agreements (FTAs), with a particular focus on some more recent advanced models of digital trade regulation. The Article finally seeks to contextualize and assess the impact of the existing legal framework and its adequacy for the contemporary data-driven economy, pointing also at some current deficiencies and potential setbacks going forward.

Trade and human rights have had a complex and contentious relationship. While trade experts assume that human rights and trade law are mutually supportive, human rights lawyers have seldom shared this opinion. Rather, they argue that across different contexts, such as climate change, culture, and development, the hard rules of international trade law focus almost exclusively on economic values and sideline human rights. This essay seeks to shed more light on these interfaces, focusing particularly on the tensions between trade law and the first generation of human rights, like privacy and free speech, that have been rarely discussed so far. It also addresses a gap in the literature on international economic law and human rights with respect to the impact of digitization. In particular, the essay focuses on the human rights implications of digital trade rulemaking, as a relatively new and dynamic subset of international trade law.

Digitization has greatly expanded the scope of trade, and with it the scope of trade law. But the regulatory framework, although growing in bilateral and regional fora, is highly dynamic and remains fragmented, increasing the challenges facing digital trade law.