Dispute Settlement and the WTO

Abstract:     
This article briefly examines the developing jurisprudence of the new WTO dispute settlement system as expressed in the Appellate reports of the first three and one-third years. It suggests some tentative generalizations about the Appellate Body approach, including a possible greater spirit of deference to national government regulatory decisions, to allow greater margins of leeway for those decisions than sometimes indicated in first-level panel reports or in later-year GATT panel reports. The author also notes some constitutional dangers of a tendency for the WTO diplomacy to rely too heavily on the dispute system to correct the many ambiguities and gaps in the new trading system Uruguay Round texts.

Accepted Paper Series