Suchergebnisse

In seven years of WTO dispute settlement (1995–2001), six panels appointed scientific experts,2 two panels requested expert advice from other international organisations3 and one panel nominated a linguistic expert.4 Under GATT 1947, in contrast, only one panel saw the need to seek expert advice.5 Very often also the parties to a WTO dispute nominate experts on their delegation, be they lawyers, economists, scientists or linguists. In addition, an increasing number of 'outsiders' or amici curiae, such as NGOs, but also industry and academics, have pressed their (expert) opinion on WTO panels and the Appellate Body.

How does the World Trade Organization (WTO) relate to the wider corpus of public international law? What, in turn, is the role of public international law in WTO dispute settlement? This paper aims at resolving these two difficult questions. No straightforward answers to them can be found in WTO rules. Yet answering them has major ramifications both for the WTO (is the WTO a largely "self-contained regime" or is it not?) and for international law (is the future of international law further fragmentation or increased unity?). This exercise will be conducted under the law as it stands today—that is, the law as it may be invoked at present before the WTO "judiciary" (panels and the Appellate Body). Of course, WTO members (viz., the WTO "legislator") could clarify or change the relationship between WTO rules and other rules of international law. However, it is unlikely that such changes will occur any time soon. In part I, I examine the general relationship between public international law and WTO law. I then assess, more specifically, the role of public international law in WTO dispute settlement in part II and offer some conclusions in part III.

In the thirty cases that have led to the adoption of dispute settlement reports in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the enforcement tool of last resort—countermeasures—has been invoked five times. This number is more—in five years—than in the forty-seven-year history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the WTO's predecessor. In addition, on six occasions WTO members have invoked the expedited procedure to solve disagreements concerning compliance with dispute setdement reports, a procedure newly introduced with the establishment of the WTO. In another case, compliance procedures are looming.