WTO Rules on Internet Gambling Case

doggod writes "The Associated Press reports today that the WTO has finally ruled on Antigua's complaint against the US over online gambling. The complaints stems from what Antigua sees as unfair trade practices relating to the US passage last year of a law that forbids banks from handling money to and from online casinos. The amount they awarded is significantly less than Antigua asked for. If you download a copyrighted song from a server in Antigua, will that be an ironclad defense that will make you invulnerable to future attacks from the RIAA?"

Comments

Re:you're surely cracked

[Bartab]

Even though the US Constitution ranks the treaty as being the supreme law of the land (theoretically above anything the executive, legislative or judiciary can do)

FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE.

Are you really so insane that you would think our founding fathers would write text that means "The President in collusion with the majority of the senate can pass a law that not only overrides previous actions but cannot be overridden by anything short of a constitutional amendment".

Roosevelt only would have needed to sign a treaty with Timbuktu to eliminate term limits. Imagine what Bush could do, or at least could have done before 2006. I suspect Chavez would be happy to sign the "No Voting Anymore" Treaty.

No, Sorry. Go back to civics class. The supremacy clause in fact places treaties at the exact same power as any other law passed by congress. Which mean roughly "last passed, most relevant". A treaty can change prior law, but likewise a congressional act can change how a treaty is enforced. In fact, the supremacy clauses whole purpose was to define treaties as superior to State laws and constitutions.

Furthermore, the supremacy clause only matters for treaties that are "self-enacting", which has fallen into extreme disfavor. Without self-enacting then in our system of gov't, Congress must pass enforcement laws before it's actually enforced upon the people. The DMCA is an example of one such law.

For point of relevance to this topic: The treaty that defined and entered the US into the WTO was not self-enacting.