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

C1 - Global Legal Services and Market Access

C1 Chair: Mr Brian Wilson

Members:
Dr David Bennett AC QC
Mr John Denton
Mr Jim Dunstan
Mr Glenn Ferguson
Dr Gordon Hughes
Mr David Krasnostein
Ms Bronwyn Lincoln
Mr Russell Miller AM
Mr Robert Milliner
Ms Kerry Ryan
Mr Ian Govey (AGD)
Ms Cheryl Scott (Austrade)
Mr Brett Hackett (DFAT)

ILSAC's interests in liberalising international trade in legal services and enhancing the international presence, performance and competitiveness of Australia's legal and related services are pursued through the Global Legal Services and Market Access Committee (C1). ILSAC provides ongoing advice and support to the Australian Government in pursuing these objectives, particularly in relation to existing market access barriers, international trade negotiations and overseas developments in the regulation of legal practice.

C1 progresses work under the corresponding Objective 1 in ILSAC's business plan.

ILSAC's work in this area falls into four broad categories:

  1. Bilateral: input to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and related negotiations, progressing Australia's market interests in other bilateral discussions, and undertaking Legal Services Missions
  2. Regional: promoting liberalisation of transnational trade in legal services under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) framework, including through APEC's Individual Action Plan process
  3. Multilateral: input to negotiations within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and
  4. Domestic projects: research and analysis to inform and guide Australia's legal services export strategy and ensuring a hospitable regulatory regime for legal services within Australia.

Current priorities include:

  • completion of the second round (2006 - 07 year) of the ILSAC Statistics Survey
  • updating ILSAC's legal services export development strategy for Australia
  • input into free trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, including the proposed Australia-China FTA and the feasibility study on a potential Australia-India FTA (ILSAC's submission to DFAT on the Australia-India FTA feasibility study is available from the downloads box)
  • development and implementation of an initiative involving the exchange of information with corporate counsel focussed on the capabilities of Australian legal services providers internationally, and
  • development of ILSAC's Legal Services Market Access Snapshots on priority legal services markets.

China Working Group on Legal Services (CWG)

The China Working Group on Legal Services provides advice to the Attorney-General’s Department and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in regard to legal services matters, including those relating to market access under the Australia-China FTA negotiations. The CWG was established in September 2006 following the Australian Legal Services Mission to China. It is coordinated by ILSAC, through its Global Legal Services and Market Access Committee (C1).