ABSTRACT
To date, only the work of the World Trade Organization and several acts such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)—provide negotiated uniform rules among member countries for offshore outsourcing. Case law, the common law of the United States that is established through judicial decision making rather than legislation, is more or less rendered useless in international or multinational enterprises; instead, these enterprises turn to what is known as “soft law”—individual agreements between corporations (Hillgenberg, 1999, p. 499). Without the benefit of legislation or the precedent established through case law, U.S. attorneys are advising their clients to proceed with caution when outsourcing work offshore.
