15 CFR Part 734 (EAR — Scope and Definitions)

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A university technology-transfer or export-control office determining whether giving lab access to unpublished source code to a non-US-citizen postdoctoral researcher is an export at all works through 15 CFR 734.13's 'release' and deemed-export logic before ever reaching a licensing question -- the question is whether Part 734 makes the disclosure a controlled event in the first place.
Is an instance
Determining whether a piece of foreign-manufactured lab equipment being shipped abroad again counts as an 'item subject to the EAR' -- because it incorporates more than a de minimis proportion of controlled US-origin content -- requires applying 15 CFR 734.3 and 734.4, not the Commerce Control List, which only becomes relevant once Part 734 has established EAR jurisdiction over the item.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
The Commerce Control List -- the actual catalog of controlled items and their Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) -- is Supplement No. 1 to 15 CFR Part 774, not Part 734; Part 734 supplies the definitions the CCL's entries are read against but contains no controlled-item list itself.
Not an instance
The EAR's General Prohibitions -- the baseline rules describing what conduct requires a license -- are set out in 15 CFR Part 736, immediately following Part 734, not within Part 734 itself, even though the two are applied together in practice during an export determination.
Not an instance
ITAR's parallel scope-and-definitions section is <a href='/dictionary/term/22-cfr-part-120-itar-purpose-and-definitions'>22 CFR Part 120</a>, administered by the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) rather than Commerce's BIS; a term defined in 15 CFR Part 734 does not automatically carry the same meaning under ITAR, even where the same English word is used in both regulations.

Editorial commentary

15 CFR Part 734 is the scope-and-definitions part of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), administered by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), establishing what is “subject to the EAR” and defining core terms like export, reexport, release, and transfer (in-country). These definitions anchor every other EAR part, from the Commerce Control List to licensing procedures.

Key provisions in Part 734

The sections most relevant to a research setting include:

Subject to the EAR (15 CFR 734.2–734.3) — defines which items, technology, and software fall under EAR jurisdiction at all, before any question of licensing arises.
De minimis (15 CFR 734.4) — sets the thresholds under which a foreign-made item incorporating controlled US-origin content is, or is not, treated as subject to the EAR.
Export, reexport, release, and transfer (in-country) (15 CFR 734.13–734.16) — the core definitions of a controlled transaction. ‘Release’ of technology or source code to a foreign national is treated as an export to that person’s country, regardless of where the release physically occurs — the deemed-export concept described operationally in CASRAI’s Deemed export entry.
Activities that are not exports, reexports, or transfers (15 CFR 734.18) and activities that are not deemed reexports (15 CFR 734.20) — carve-outs, including for certain published or publicly available technology and specific categories of foreign-national activity.
Fundamental research exclusion (15 CFR 734.8) — technology or software that arises during, or results from, fundamental research intended for publication is excluded from EAR scope entirely, not merely covered by a license exception. See CASRAI’s Fundamental research exemption entry for the operational detail, including how the exclusion is lost once a project accepts publication restrictions or foreign-national access restrictions.

These are working summaries of the current regulatory text and are not a substitute for the primary source; BIS amends Part 734 periodically, so an institution making an actual compliance determination should confirm current wording directly against 15 CFR Part 734 rather than relying on any secondary summary, including this one.

Why Part 734 matters operationally, not just as a citation

Research institutions rarely cite Part 734 on its own; it is invoked implicitly every time an export-control office screens whether a piece of software or technical data is ‘subject to the EAR,’ applies a Technology Control Plan (TCP) to restrict a foreign national’s access, or evaluates software export controls questions such as whether source code is ‘published’ and therefore outside EAR jurisdiction. Because ‘export,’ ‘release,’ and ‘subject to the EAR’ are Part 734 terms of art that do not always match plain-English usage — a disclosure inside a US lab to a foreign-national colleague can itself be an export under the deemed-export concept, with no item ever crossing a border — treating them as self-evident is a common source of compliance error. Part 734 does not itself control anything; the Commerce Control List (Supplement No. 1 to Part 774) supplies the actual controlled-item categories, Part 736 supplies the General Prohibitions, and later parts supply licensing, exception, and enforcement mechanics — all of which apply only once an item, technology, or disclosure has first been classified using Part 734’s definitions. See CASRAI’s Export Control (EAR/ITAR) and International Research Collaboration guide for how this fits into a research institution’s broader compliance program, and the 22 CFR Part 120 entry for the equivalent ITAR-side scope-and-definitions part.

References

Export Administration Regulations, Scope of the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR Part 734, US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security.
15 CFR 734.8 (fundamental research) and 15 CFR 734.13–734.20 (export, reexport, release, transfer, and related carve-outs), Part 734.
Commerce Control List, Supplement No. 1 to 15 CFR Part 774.

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

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Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

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