Australian Government: Attorney-General's Department
Australian Government: Attorney-General's DepartmentAchieving a Just and Secure Society

World Trade Organization and the liberalisation of trade in legal services

Negotiations on legal services are conducted under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The WTO currently has 151 members. Australia is recognised by our trading partners as playing a leading role in promoting the liberalisation of transnational trade in legal services under the WTO.

Australia’s primary objective in legal services is to encourage WTO members to make binding commitments on legal services that:

  • provide access for foreign lawyers to practise foreign law (home-country, third-country and international law), and
  • provide a right to work in association with, or employ, host-country lawyers.

This ‘limited licensing’ approach facilitates the availability of legal services covering the laws of multiple jurisdictions in all WTO member economies, without requiring foreign lawyers to undertake an unnecessarily burdensome process to meet admission requirements to practise host-country law.

More details on Australia’s interests in multilateral trade negotiations, including Australia’s services offers under the current Doha Round and specific negotiating proposals on legal services, are available from DFAT’s ‘Trade in Services’ web page.

Australia’s negotiating proposals

Australia has tabled three negotiating proposals promoting the liberalisation of transnational trade in legal services in the current Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The first two proposals develop and explain guiding principles of liberalisation for trade in legal services and the ‘limited licensing’ model identified by the International Bar Association in 1998.  The third proposal (supplement) was designed to expand the WTO classification of ‘legal services’ to enable commitments to be made under the limited licensing model. This proposal was instrumental in identifying the need for improved classification of legal services, to enable commitments to be made by members on a progressively liberal basis.

With the objective of promoting the adoption of objective and non-burdensome requirements for the regulation of lawyers across the WTO membership, particularly those providing legal services in foreign law, Australia tabled a further proposal on the need to develop meaningful domestic regulatory disciplines for legal services as mandated by Article VI:4 of the GATS.  In addition to the need for transparency of regulations, the proposal covers guidance of the adoption of licensing requirements and procedures, qualification requirements and procedures, and the imposition of appropriate technical standards.

These proposals were developed by the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department with input from the International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC), members of the legal profession and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Friends of Legal Services Group

Australia established and chairs a ‘Friends of Legal Services’ group under the WTO’s services negotiating process.  The Friends Group of 16 members includes Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the European Communities, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.  The Friends Group allows for complex and legal services specific issues to be discussed in detail, as well as addressing any issues of concern to WTO members on the liberalisation of this sector.  It is the only Friends Group under the WTO to be initiated and chaired by Australia.

The Friends Group was instrumental in producing the Joint Statement on Legal Services, coordinated by Australia, which resolved the long-running legal services classification dispute, noting the impracticality of a single-category classification system and identifying classification terminology consistent with Australia’s preferred disaggregation approach.  It provides guidance to WTO members on making binding legal services market access commitments under the GATS.

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