Originally from: The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries
The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries-Electronic
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The Use and Abuse of International Law in WTO Trade/Environment Litigation
Robert Howse
Among the central challenges to the international legal order today is that which is typically referred to as “fragmentation”—the co-existence of multiple regimes and fora, whose legal subjects and objects partly converge and often diverge, where fora and norms can overlap and possibly collide in a single dispute. Although there are some rules to deal with conflict of treaties and some principles of hierarchy (the status of ius cogens being the most obvious example) the positive features of international law as a system of rules are very indeterminate in addressing fragmentation. In fact, fragmentation may reflect a tendency of “juridification” of transnational social relations and interests of all kinds, extending far beyond the kind of core State interests reflected in traditional international law and especially in the UN Charter.
This chapter is concerned with one particular dimension of fragmentation of norms—its challenges for interpretation. What kind of role should norms drawn from other international instruments and regimes have in the interpretation of a treaty where the dispute in question implicates interests and constituencies represented in both regimes? One of the most contentious and complex expressions of fragmentation has been the trade and environment debate, including the relationship of WTO law to international environmental law.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Overview
Abbreviations
PART I UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION TODAY AND ITS HISTORY
SECTION I
The World Trade Organization: The Challenges Ahead
SECTION II
The Uruguay Round and the Doha Development Agenda: What Have We Achieved?
SECTION III
The World Trade Organization and Developing Countries
SECTION IV
Decision-making in the World Trade Organization: An Analysis of a Member-driven Organization
SECTION V
Reflections on the World Trade Organization in the Context of Economic Globalization
PART II THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM
SECTION VI
Examining the Dispute Settlement System: How Has It Performed?
SECTION VII
Lessons from Experience: Operation of the Panel Process and Appellate Review
SECTION VIII
WTO Case Law in the International Law Context
SECTION IX
Considering Remedies
SECTION X
The WTO Dispute Settlement System in the Next Ten Years
SECTION XI
Implementation of WTO Rulings: The Role of the Courts and Legislatures in the United States and Other Jurisdictions
Biographical Notes
Table of Cases
Index
