Originally from:
The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries
The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries-Digital
Chapter 27 - Preview Page
Expediting the Panel Process in WTO Dispute Settlement
William Davey
The dispute settlement system of the WTO is commonly considered to have been a great success. Its success can be seen in its frequent use by a wide variety of Members of the WTO and by the results that it has produced in terms of settlements arising from consultations and implementation of the decisions of panels and the Appellate Body. For the most part, these results have been achieved relatively quickly compared to the time it takes to achieve results in other State-to-State dispute settlement systems, such as the ICJ, and in national courts. Nonetheless, there has been considerable concern about excessive delays in the system that has been raised in the 1998–1999 review of the DSU and more recently in the ongoing negotiations on DSU reform. This chapter examines the results of the system as of September 2006, with a particular focus on how long various stages of the system take to complete. In light of the fact that the system seems to take much longer than intended to resolve contested cases, the chapter then considers ways in which the WTO dispute settlement process (and, in particular, the panel process) could be expedited. In examining this question, it will become apparent that one basic structural change—the creation and use of a Permanent Panel Body, from which all (or at least most) panel members would be selected—offers the prospect of very considerable time savings. Consequently, the chapter separately examines in some detail the likely consequences and desirability of that structural change.
At the outset, one basic question should be addressed. Simply put: do delays matter? In considering how the dispute settlement process unfolds, it becomes clear that complainants typically do not push as aggressively as they could under the DSU.1 For example, they decide when to request a panel and whether and how quickly to request the Director-General to compose a panel and have a major say in the briefing and hearing schedule.
About the Author:
William Davey is Edwin M. Adams Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law.