The Impending Demise of the WTO Appellate Body: From Centrepiece to Historical Relic?

Chang-fa Lo, The Appellate Body of the WTO and Its Reform, Springer, 2019 ___, Forthcoming

23 Pages Posted: 17 Jun 2019 Last revised: 7 Jul 2020

Date Written: June 5, 2019

Abstract

The current crisis engulfing the multilateral trading system has crystalized in the dispute over the (re-)appointment of the members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. While the legislative arm of the organization has never lived up to its potential, its dispute settlement arm with the Appellate Body at its apex was seen as a lodestar for other international courts and tribunals. The United States has taken issue not only with individual decisions of the Appellate Body (as well as individual Appellate Body members), but with the institution as such. The article recounts the important institutional redesign that has led to the Appellate Body becoming the World Trade Organization’s institutional “centerpiece”. These very same developments are now destined to lead to the Appellate Body’s downfall with potential reverberations for the entire World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement process. Moreover, it threatens the institution as a whole, unless some last minute compromise can be found between various competing visions of global economic governance.

Keywords: World Trade Organization, WTO, Appellate Body, Dispute Settlement, International Trade Law, International Trade Law, International Trade, Trade, Multilateralism, Multilateral

JEL Classification: F10, F13, F15, K33

Suggested Citation

Wagner, Markus, The Impending Demise of the WTO Appellate Body: From Centrepiece to Historical Relic? (June 5, 2019). Chang-fa Lo, The Appellate Body of the WTO and Its Reform, Springer, 2019 ___, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3399300 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3399300

Markus Wagner (Contact Author)

University of Wollongong ( email )

Northfields Avenue
Wollongong, New South Wales 2522
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://scholars.uow.edu.au/markus-wagner

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