The Continued Relevance of the GATS in the New Financial Landscape : A Legal Perspective

The current financial upheaval has brought about a reconsideration of regulatory and corporate practices in the financial sector. This paper claims that the current multilateral framework regulating services, that is, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), should be revisited to match advances in other international institutions dealing with finance, such as the IMF or the Basel institutions, and remain relevant to the future of international financial regulation. It does so by focusing on how the international financial crisis may revive and inform the pursuit for more effective multilateral disciplines on domestic regulations in financial services, including rules regarding proportionality; prudential concerns; and subdidization in services