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This article provides a detailed overview of the national security excep- tions within the legal system of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The topic sparks new debate among practitioners and scholars because international trade faces a grow- ing number of restrictions when states justify their actions on the grounds of national security, although such actions sometimes hide not only political but also commercial interests of individual governments and several sectors of the economy. The mentioned examples include trade restrictions related to the Russia–Ukraine conflict, the conflict of Qatar with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and several other countries in the region, and deci- sions by the US president on additional import duties on steel and aluminium. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the resolution of these international trade restrictions is shifting from diplomatic formats to ad hoc litigation under WTO dispute settlement procedures. The first ruling in the history of the WTO in a case con- cerning the application of the national security exception came to pass in the case of Rus- sia – Transit Traffic (Ukraine) on 26 April 2019, following the adoption of the arbitra- tion panel report by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. This ruling fills a gap in WTO jurisprudence, which is wide enough on many other issues of international trade law. In addition to the content of specific legal provisions, this article analyzes the lat- est WTO dispute settlement proceedings, which look into the application of national security exceptions. This article also aims to answer the question of the legitimacy of application of national security exemptions, and to define the scope of national security exceptions in international trade law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the author analyses the order in the economic courts of the Republic of Belarus as concerns the area of economic legal relations due to the defence of rights and legal interest of foreign natural and legal persons and persons whom the citizenship has not been granted. The main legal principals determined in the economic cases where the foreign persons take part in have been provided in the Procedural Code of Economic Cases of the Republic of Belarus. The author made a comparison between the Procedural Code of Economic Cases of the Republic of Belarus passed in 1998 and the new Procedural Code of Economic Cases of the Republic of Belarus passed in 2004 for the economic courts of the Republic of Belarus due to the jurisdiction of foreign persons. The novelties have been emphasized in the new code. In the article the author draws his attention to the analysis of the competence of the economic courts of the Republic of Belarus described in the Procedural Code of Economic Cases. The expansion due to the competence of the economic courts while trying the economic cases, where the foreign persons take part in, has been emphasized. The exceptional competence of the economic courts is being analysed as well as the party's right to change the court competence provided by the laws, i.e., the court competence provided by the laws can be changed on the basis of the prorogational or derogational agreement. The prorogational agreement is applied when the parties agree to hand extrajudicial cases to be tried in the economic court. The derogational agreement is applied when the parties agree to hand triable cases to be tried in the other court. The article describes the persons owing judicial immunity, the conditions of the application of the immunity, the peculiarities of the application and effect of the international agreements. The article in principle analyses the jurisdiction of the economic courts of the Republic of Belarus due to the cases where the foreign persons take part in pursuant to the legal acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]