scholarly journals The Age of Innocence: The Evolution of the Case Law of the WTO Dispute Settlement: Subsidies as a Case Study

2017 ◽  
pp. 276-318
Author(s):  
Luca Rubini
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
The Age Of Innocence

Legalization in context: The design of the WTO’s dispute settlement system

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Elsig
Keyword(s):  
Rational Design ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Dispute Settlement System

This article asks why the dispute settlement provisions of the multilateral trading system underwent significant reforms during the negotiations that led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. Why did the leading trading powers accept a highly legalized system that departed from established political–diplomatic forms of settling disputes? The contribution of this article is threefold. First, it complements existing accounts that exclusively focus on the United States with a novel explanation that takes account of contextual factors. Second, it offers an in-depth empirical case study based on interviews with negotiators who were involved and novel archival evidence on the creation of the new WTO dispute settlement system. Third, by unpacking the long-standing puzzle of why states designed a highly legalized system, it addresses selected blind spots of the legalization and the rational design literatures with the aim of providing a better understanding about potential paths leading toward significant changes in legalization.

Legitimating Behind the Smoke Screen in the Battle Over Clove Cigarettes

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-160
Author(s):  
Sivan Shlomo Agon
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Goal Attainment ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
The World ◽  
Dispute Settlement System

Recent years have confronted the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement System (DSS) with an intense wave of complex linkage disputes. US-Clove Cigarettes, which stands at the centre of this chapter, serves as the second case study in the investigation into the DSS’s goal-attainment endeavours in this category of WTO disputes. The chapter begins with a review of several jurisprudential milestones leading from the early US-Shrimp, examined in Chapter 5, to the more recent US-Clove Cigarettes, examined here, with a view to portraying the legitimation continuum of which the latter dispute forms a part. The chapter then discusses the intricate legitimacy setting in which US-Clove Cigarettes unfolded and, through a close goal-oriented analysis, shows how the intensified legitimacy concerns aroused shaped the goals pursued by the DSS and the judicial choices made towards their achievement. The chapter concludes by linking the goal-attainment efforts identified to the broader DSS goal-based effectiveness framework advanced in the book.

scholarly journals Twenty years of the WTO Appellate Body’s “fragmentation jurisprudence”

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lang
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law

Purpose – This paper aims to reflect on the first 20 years of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body’s jurisprudence, specifically as it relates to questions of normative fragmentation. It provides an overview of some of the highlights of the WTO’s jurisprudence as it pertains to fragmentation, with particular focus on the use of general public international law in the context of the WTO dispute settlement. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a traditional interpretive legal method, applied to the case law of the WTO. Findings – The paper suggests that the Appellate Body’s approach has not been driven by the institutional myopia and normative closure of which they are sometimes accused, but rather a judicial sensibility which (rightly or wrongly) valorises the virtues of modesty, caution and self-restraint. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on the causes of fragmentation, drawing attention in particular to the importance of international lawyers and tribunals in contributing to fragmentation, not just responding to it. The fragmentation of international law is, in part, the product of ongoing boundary work, and the “fragmentation jurisprudence” of the Appellate Body has predictably involved boundary work of a particularly intense kind.

The Transatlantic Conflict Over Beefed-Up Beef

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-257
Author(s):  
Sivan Shlomo Agon
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Transatlantic Trade ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Informative Case ◽  
Basic Facts ◽  
Dispute Settlement System ◽  
Effectiveness Assessment

Alongside EC-Bananas, the transatlantic trade feud over hormone-fed beef constitutes another informative case study for investigating how the challenges invoked in perennial disputes affect the motivations for and the practice of disputing at the World Trade Organization (WTO), generate shifts and conflicts between the goals of the WTO Dispute Settlement System (DSS), and shape the outcomes it ultimately yields. The chapter first recounts the basic facts of EC-Hormones and the dispute’s major milestones in the multilateral trade system. It then distils the factors that rendered EC-Hormones so resistant to compliance and resolution. On this basis, the chapter turns to an in-depth, goal-based analysis of the dispute, exploring the goal shifting characterizing the DSS’s operation throughout the conflict and the heightened role the system played along the fine line between law and politics. Finally, the chapter examines the mixed outcomes delivered in the case while addressing the goal conflicts those outcomes represent and their implications for the DSS’s effectiveness assessment.

It Ain't Over ‘Til It's Over: The WTO Case Law of 2018

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-151
Author(s):  
Chad P. Bown ◽  
Petros C. Mavroidis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Antidumping Duties ◽  
Dispute Settlement System ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
European University

Our annual gathering in Florence (8 and 9 July 2019), generously sponsored by the European University Institute, amidst the crisis at the WTO, was business as usual. Trading nations continue to entrust the WTO dispute settlement system with the adjudication of their disputes. The conference covered a very healthy number of disputes across different subject matter, ranging from antidumping duties to protection of public health.

Liberalized Trade and International Environmental Law and Policy: Australia’s Negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol

1999 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 181-225
Author(s):  
Kirsten Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Cooperative Approach ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Environmental Law And Policy

SummaryThis article addresses the difficulties to be faced in reconciling the international law and policy of trade regulation with that of environmental protection. It reviews the recent environment-related cases brought before the GATT/WTO dispute settlement panel and Appellate Body and provides a critical analysis of the results in the context of the relevant GATT/WTO rules. Such a review informs the case study, which is undertaken in the article, addressing the Australian government's use of trade policy in negotiating its position under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The article argues that it is crucial for environmental regulators to work cooperatively with free trade proponents to better clarify and strengthen the position of environmental law and policy within the free trade regime. The article concludes that, although this debate continues to remain polarized, there does appear to be signs of movement towards such a cooperative approach.

When the Multilateral Meets the Regionals: Regional Trade Agreements at WTO Dispute Settlement

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELLE Q. ZANG
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Appellate Body ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The One

AbstractInteraction between regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the multilateral trading system established by the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an issue of significance but nevertheless remains unsettled. This article aims to explore the influence RTAs have generated had on the WTO system, with particular focus on the approach adopted by the adjudicators when dealing with irreconcilable RTA–WTO conflicts. During the development of 20 years’ jurisprudence, WTO adjudicators offered responses to a number of critical questions. On the one hand, direct endorsement of RTA provisions with the effect of prevailing over the counterpart WTO rules appears to be very difficult, either through legal interpretation or application. On the other hand, unlike often being argued, a close review of WTO case law does not reveal a biased adjudicatory approach against regionalism, as compared to other sources of public international law. When dealing with RTA-related matters, the Appellate Body has been advocating an all-encompassing approach featured by the emphasis on the common intention during the interpretative exercise and the promotion for the WTO built-in mechanisms for valid modification. Such an approach is, to a certain extent, misleading in the RTA –WTO context and has led to certain ill-founded adjudicatory choice.

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