This comment revisits the debate on the reasons for compliance, or lack
thereof, with the regulations and administrative rules that govern the
current international trade regime. The research on which it is based is the
first part of the five-year project on Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution
funded by the Major Collaborative Research Initiative program of the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It focuses on the
cultural components of non-compliance based on analysis of the legislative
internalization of World Trade Organization norms and case law in China,
Canada, and Japan on the one hand and on individual perceptions of the
international trade environment on the other. The main hypotheses are that
the sharing of international practice rules does not necessarily indicate
consensus on the normative order underlying those rules and that the
behaviour of those who are involved in the interpretation and application of
international rules is informed by (1) their perception of the purpose,
content, and effect of nonlocal rules and their underlying norms; (2) those
rules' and norms' complementarity with local rules and norms; and (3) the
degree of legitimacy accorded by local communities to the processes of
interpretation and application.