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When Russia in 2012 joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), it also moved its bilateral power-oriented trade relationship with the European Union (EU) into a more rule of law-based framework. This paper addresses the WTO dispute settlement system's role in settling disputes relevant to the Russia-EU trade relationship. The rule of law-based framework can prove essential for businesses engaged in EU-Russia trade as it strengthens legal certainty. The paper addresses two dimensions where the WTO dispute settlement system has strengthened legal certainty: (1) by clarifying the legal value of the dispute settlement reports; and (2) by handling and clarifying the interface between trade law and environmental law, where the latter may have an impact on climate change law.

Many companies and their leadership teams are intimidated by the digital world and the dark, mysterious risks from cyber threats. Many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) do not understand the implications of increasing digital transformation and their increasing exposure to cybercrime-but they must. So, from both an academic and practical perspective, the authors of this paper have interviewed several Chief Security Officers (CSOs) and analyzed their remarks from a leadership perspective-it is only human to not understand the digital world, and to see the security function as a technical niche, but business leaders have an enormous and scary gap to bridge, and mounting pressures to do so. Arguably, the skills/abilities required for engaging in responsible leadership include the appreciation of risk-even risks such as digital issues and cyber security challenges which the typical business leader barely understands. Some companies are more responsive to global problems such as cybercrime than others-and much of this response depends on how seriously they take their digital transformation and if they listen to their cyber security experts.