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The Strengths, Weaknesses, and Future of WTO Appellate Review - Chapter 28 - WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries
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Originally from:
The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries
The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries-Digital
Chapter 28 - Preview Page
The Strengths, Weaknesses, and Future of WTO Appellate Review
Valerie Hughes
The focus of this chapter is appellate review in the WTO. Specifically, it considers the strengths, weaknesses, and future of WTO appellate review, from the perspective of one who observed it initially from the outside as a trade litigator for a WTO Member, and then from the inside as Director of the Appellate Body Secretariat. Those experiences led me to conclude that the WTO Appellate Body is one of the most remarkable international law institutions operating today—remarkable for its invaluable contribution to the WTO as an institution, for its development of a rich and extensive body of trade law in only ten years of activity, and for its profound influence on international law and international dispute settlement procedures. The credit for these achievements must go, in large measure, to a small group of people, most notably the past and current members of the Appellate Body, whose wisdom and dedication fostered a highly respected and influential international adjudicative body that is unrivalled in the international law field.
The WTO dispute settlement system has been lauded for its many achievements in conferences and in other fora, as well as in the legal literature. Although its success was far from guaranteed, the Members of the WTO apparently expected as much from the dispute settlement system. WTO Members proclaimed at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round that they had achieved a “clearer legal framework . . . for the conduct of international trade” with a “more effective and reliable dispute settlement mechanism.” For the first time in history, the international community had created a comprehensive system for resolving international trade disputes among some 130 Members that was compulsory, exclusive, efficient, and binding. The Members declared at the beginning of the agreement setting out the dispute settlement rules (known as the DSU) that the system was “a central element in providing security and predictability to the multilateral trading system” with the stated objective of “preserv[ing] the rights and obligations of Members under the covered agreements . . . .”
About the Author:
Valerie Hughes is Assistant Deputy Minister Counsel, Law Branch, Finance for the Government of Canada.
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