Anti-Dumping Law as a Complex Adaptive Socio-Technical System: Feedback, Institutional Learning, and Regulatory Resilience

Anti-dumping laws are commonly described in terms of petition, investigation, determination, duty and review. The article reconceptualizes the legal regime as a multi-dimensional adaptive socio-technical system, where formal decisions drive corporate behavior, supply chain architecture, evidentiary conditions and expectations of investigative agencies. The study develops a conceptual framework and provides a systematic review of three officially reported anti-dumping feedback cases, chosen to study different system dynamics, including adaptive shifting and avoidance, recurrent judicial rectification and politically facilitated administrative review. It proposes the five-level Anti-Dumping Regulatory System Resilience Framework (AD-RSRF), which links legal bases, institutional procedures, decision results, practical adaptations and feedback-informed modifications. The analysis suggests that formal legal validity does not explain the ongoing effectiveness and legitimacy of an anti-dumping regime. The key elements influencing the effectiveness of the system are variation in regulations, checks and balances, extent of institutional knowledge, transparency of processes and control of external political influence. The article therefore suggests four design principles: continuous scope assessment, systematic review of methodology after adverse rulings, explicit separation of political influence and evidentiary logic, and improved trade data and case management capabilities. The AD-RSRF is an interpretive framework, not a predictive model.