Essential legal conditions for cross-border single window operability: Modelling Australian laws

Countries are implementing single window (‘SW’) systems as an efficient means for traders to submit regulatory clearances to government authorities when they export and import goods. The next logical step is to internationalize these systems. Yet, SW operability must build from robust national legal conditions that foster trust among various users of the system. Inadequate and inconsistent national legal conditions pose barriers to establishing cross-border SW interoperability. The thesis investigates how – through the provision of what legal conditions – an enabling SW legal framework can be created. It also makes some useful suggestions regarding the international law-making mechanisms needed to harmonize this model of an enabling legal framework between countries.