https://nikita.nz/ Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT Law), Aotearoa New Zealand. Research in intellectual property, international trade law, digital trade, national security, and Asia-Pacific economic regulation. en Fri, 07 Aug 2026 22:55:38 GMT scripts/postbuild.js https://nikita.nz/pages/event/shaping-software-markets-copyright-trade-agreements-and-the-dynamics-of-cross-border-digital-trade-in-the-asia-pacific https://nikita.nz/pages/event/shaping-software-markets-copyright-trade-agreements-and-the-dynamics-of-cross-border-digital-trade-in-the-asia-pacific Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Copyright and software provisions in Asia-Pacific trade agreements as market shapers structuring how cross-border software markets and digital trade operate. event software copyright digital trade trade agreements source code artificial intelligence Asia-Pacific https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-july-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-july-2026 Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT A panel rejects Türkiye's climate defence of EV duties, Russia forces a CBAM panel, Brazil challenges US tariffs and India tests the e-commerce agreement. document WTO dispute settlement trade law digital trade intellectual property CBAM electric vehicles Asia-Pacific WTO reform TRIPS https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/868752/explainer-what-is-a-data-centre-and-why-is-everyone-freaking-out-now tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/explainer-what-is-a-data-centre-and-why-is-everyone-freaking-out-now Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres New Zealand AI energy water https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7228601 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/empirical-legal-research-in-leading-generalist-australian-and-new-zealand-law-journals-2019-2024-a-pilot-study Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper legal research empirical legal research research methods law journals https://pudding.cool/2026/07/essential-words tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/how-the-words-we-teach-english-language-learners-changed Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news language linguistics data journalism https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-28/how-norway-s-salmon-industry-became-a-global-behemoth/106949872 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/salmon-farming-transformed-norway-now-it-s-facing-the-consequences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news salmon farming aquaculture Norway Tasmania https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/claude-s-heavy-users-in-australasia https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/claude-s-heavy-users-in-australasia Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Australia and New Zealand top Anthropic's usage index. The more interesting fact is that a private lab now measures what no statistics office does. opinion AI Anthropic Economic Index New Zealand Australia digital economy https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/796938/urgent-need-for-rules-and-protections-on-data-centres-greens-say tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/urgent-need-for-rules-and-protections-on-data-centres-greens-say Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres New Zealand energy AI regulation https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/750158/massive-southland-data-centre-s-water-consent-concerns-engineer tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/massive-southland-data-centre-s-water-consent-concerns-engineer Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres New Zealand water energy https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol25/iss1/2 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/co-authorship-between-photographers-and-portrait-subjects Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper copyright joint authorship photography https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/is-the-answerability-turn-possible https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/is-the-answerability-turn-possible Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI detection polices the wrong property. The question is who answers for a text, and law has owned the answerability device all along, the signature. opinion AI academic writing legal practice authorship professional responsibility https://theconversation.com/when-can-a-power-company-take-your-land-for-data-center-infrastructure-284061 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/when-can-a-power-company-take-your-land-for-data-center-infrastructure Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres eminent domain energy United States https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-026-01148-8 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/ai-and-the-future-of-publishing-not-detection-but-answerability Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper scholarly publishing artificial intelligence authorship peer review https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-data-refineries https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-data-refineries Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The fight over where data lives is now about electricity, land and grid capacity. A data centre strategy is an energy policy before it is a trade policy. opinion data localisation data centres digital trade industrial policy https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/nyregion/new-york-data-center-moratorium-hochul.html tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/new-york-enacts-nation-s-first-statewide-moratorium-on-data-centers Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres energy United States https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2026/07/11/irish-datacenters-now-guzzle-23-of-the-countrys-electricity/5270013 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/irish-datacenters-now-guzzle-23-of-the-country-s-electricity Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres energy Ireland https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7030198 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/research-centricity-and-the-australasian-legal-academic Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper legal academia legal research research funding law schools https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-june-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-june-2026 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The Agreement on Electronic Commerce opens for acceptance, an art 66.2 workshop probes technology transfer, and the UK's CPTPP accession questions land. document WTO intellectual property digital trade trade law dispute settlement Asia-Pacific TRIPS CPTPP electronic commerce https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-permanent-emergency-security-exceptions-in-digital-trade https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-permanent-emergency-security-exceptions-in-digital-trade Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Security exceptions appear in two of three digital trade agreements while binding access commitments lag, skewing technology access towards advanced economies. opinion security exceptions digital trade Asia-Pacific WTO trade law permanent emergency https://chatgptiseatingtheworld.com/2026/06/25/new-york-times-abandons-contributory-infringement-claim-v-openai-in-light-of-supreme-courts-cox-decision/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/new-york-times-abandons-contributory-infringement-claim-v-openai-in-light-of-supreme-court-s-cox-decision Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT news copyright AI OpenAI litigation United States https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-024-03582-1 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/ai-shaming-the-silent-stigma-among-academic-writers-and-researchers Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper artificial intelligence academic writing research ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-026-09626-6 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/trade-agreements-and-the-design-of-democracy-related-provisions-tradem-the-creation-of-a-new-data-set Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper trade agreements democracy datasets treaty design https://theconversation.com/why-the-us-government-shut-down-anthropics-latest-claude-ai-model-285223 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/why-the-us-government-shut-down-anthropic-s-latest-claude-ai-model Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT news AI export controls national security AI regulation United States https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/one-region-many-rulebooks https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/one-region-many-rulebooks Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Overlapping digital trade rulebooks agree on everything except the parts you would litigate. The regime complex is an information problem only data can map. opinion digital trade Asia-Pacific DEPA RCEP CPTPP regime complex https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1317 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/eu-and-korea-sign-landmark-digital-trade-agreement-at-summit Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT news digital trade European Union Korea data flows trade agreements https://nikita.nz/pages/tool/new-version-of-the-ip%E2%80%93services-toolkit-is-available https://nikita.nz/pages/tool/new-version-of-the-ip%E2%80%93services-toolkit-is-available Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT The updated IP–Services Toolkit maps linkages between IP rights and services trade across four sectors, now on Observable Framework with Stats NZ data. tool intellectual property services digital trade New Zealand trade policy toolkit https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-may-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-may-2026 Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT A 23-Member statement keeps e-transmissions duty-free after the moratorium's lapse, China opens a third front against India, and DS632 gets appeal arbitration. document WTO digital trade electronic commerce intellectual property dispute settlement trade law TRIPS China India Asia-Pacific Cambodia https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/trade-policy-on-the-edge-of-the-map https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/trade-policy-on-the-edge-of-the-map Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT With FTAs covering 70 per cent of trade, the scoreboard era is over. New Zealand can draft the rules in narrow domains where capacity matters more than size. opinion New Zealand trade policy free trade agreements small states CER https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news26_e/gc_06may26_386_e.htm tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/general-council-chair-outlines-next-steps-to-build-on-momentum-from-mc14-negotiations Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT news WTO MC14 e-commerce moratorium General Council https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/594164/amazon-takes-45m-hit-abandons-planned-west-auckland-data-centre tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/amazon-takes-45m-hit-abandons-planned-west-auckland-data-centre Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data centres New Zealand Amazon https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-april-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-april-2026 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The UK's CPTPP accession reaches the RTA Committee, disputes improvise around the appellate vacuum, and Switzerland floods TRIPS with notifications. document WTO dispute settlement trade law intellectual property Asia-Pacific CPTPP TRIPS electronic commerce digital trade artificial intelligence https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/593481/indian-free-trade-agreement-due-for-formal-signing-in-new-delhi tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/indian-free-trade-agreement-due-for-formal-signing-in-new-delhi Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT news New Zealand India free trade agreements trade policy https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-verification-tax https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/the-verification-tax Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The verification tax on legal AI is a schedule of rates, not a flat prohibition. The worst policy is one that incentivises people to evade the tax collector. opinion AI LLMs legal practice legal education academic writing https://www.bilaterals.org/?china-reanimates-mega-trade-pact tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/china-reanimates-mega-trade-pact-to-counter-global-protectionism Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT news FTAAP APEC China Asia-Pacific trade agreements https://doi.org/10.1177/2755323X261427048 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/ai-powered-lawyering-ai-reasoning-models-retrieval-augmented-generation-and-the-future-of-legal-practice Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper AI legal practice LLMs empirical legal studies https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-march-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-march-2026 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT At Yaoundé the e-commerce moratorium lapses, the TRIPS non-violation standstill expires, and 66 Members advance the E-Commerce Agreement regardless. document WTO Ministerial Conference digital trade electronic commerce intellectual property dispute settlement trade law WTO reform Asia-Pacific TRIPS fisheries subsidies https://doi.org/10.26180/31879981.v1 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/assessing-the-quality-of-legal-research Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper legal research research evaluation legal academia Australia https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/fcc_foreign_routers/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/us-bans-any-new-consumer-grade-routers-not-made-in-america Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT news national security United States telecommunications supply chains trade restrictions https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-february-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-february-2026 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The US appeals its IRA loss into the void, the EU seeks a panel over China's worldwide SEP licensing, and the e-commerce moratorium end-game begins. document WTO digital trade electronic commerce intellectual property dispute settlement trade law TRIPS China standard essential patents Ministerial Conference https://www.oyez.org/cases/2025/24-1287 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/case/learning-resources-inc-v-trump Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT case IEEPA tariffs presidential powers international trade United States Donald Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/us/politics/trump-tariffs-plans.html tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/after-stunning-setback-trump-finds-other-ways-to-impose-tariffs Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT news Donald Trump tariffs IEEPA section 122 section 301 international trade United States Supreme Court https://ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2026/02/section-122-as-a-partial-replacement-for-the-ieepa-tariffs/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/opinion/section-122-as-a-partial-replacement-for-the-ieepa-tariffs Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT opinion section 122 tariffs IEEPA balance of payments international trade United States Donald Trump https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-gives-20-year-tax-holiday-foreign-firms-using-local-data-centres-2026-02-01/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/india-gives-20-year-tax-holiday-to-foreign-firms-using-local-data-centres Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT news data localisation India data centres digital trade tax policy https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-january-2026 https://nikita.nz/pages/document/wto-documents-digest-january-2026 Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT A panel condemns the US IRA's domestic content credits and sidesteps the public morals question, while China opens a parallel front against India. document WTO dispute settlement trade law intellectual property Asia-Pacific TRIPS China subsidies industrial policy renewable energy https://ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2026/01/guest-post-president-trump-cannot-legally-impose-tariffs-using-section-122-of-the-trade-act-of-1974/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/opinion/guest-post-president-trump-cannot-legally-impose-tariffs-using-section-122-of-the-trade-act-of-1974 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT opinion section 122 tariffs balance of payments floating exchange rates international trade United States Donald Trump https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/copy-paste-negotiate https://nikita.nz/pages/opinion/copy-paste-negotiate Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most trade agreements are copied wholesale from earlier ones. The negotiation lives in the deviations, so read a new FTA the way a developer reads a diff. opinion trade agreements treaty design text analysis digital trade research methods https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/584114/election-2026-labour-proposes-game-changing-streaming-levy-to-fund-local-productions tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/election-2026-labour-proposes-game-changing-streaming-levy-to-fund-local-productions Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT news streaming services cultural policy New Zealand digital trade https://theconversation.com/the-world-trade-organization-is-on-life-support-will-trumps-new-rules-finish-it-off-273216 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/news/the-world-trade-organization-is-on-life-support-will-trump-s-new-rules-finish-it-off Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT news WTO trade policy United States tariffs https://hdl.handle.net/1814/95447 tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/paper/data-sovereignty-firms-accountability-and-the-challenge-of-international-governance Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT paper data sovereignty data flows digital trade international governance https://ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2025/11/is-section-122-of-the-1974-trade-act-a-fall-back-option-for-trump-to-impose-tariffs/ tag:nikita.nz,2026:garden/opinion/is-section-122-of-the-1974-trade-act-a-fall-back-option-for-trump-to-impose-tariffs Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT opinion section 122 tariffs IEEPA non-discrimination balance of payments international trade United States Donald Trump