Suchergebnisse

The article discusses the problem of influence exerted by commercial actors in international trade disputes and consequences of this phenomenon for positions adopted by adjudicators. It explores the role of commercial stakeholders inasmuch as they comprise a driving force behind state action, and examines procedural options available to those stakeholders. The issue of adjudicatory independence and neutrality is considered in the context of involved industries and their interests as the non-party spiritus movens behind WTO dispute settlement processes. Related procedural aspects, such as confidentiality/transparency of proceedings and the possibilities for participation of non-party actors, are also examined. It is argued that WTO litigation is often only one track among several available to the stakeholders in the pursuit of their interests. As a consequence, the problem of forum shopping is also raised. In this vein, the standards of the WTO Appellate Body in the area under discussion are set against those of investment and commercial arbitration (as the institutions and rules designed for the latter are also being used for trade controversies, as evidenced in the Softwood Lumber LCIA arbitrations). Consequently, the problem of establishing standards of adjudicatory independence is deemed a significant factor in strategic selection of the most advantageous forum for dispute resolution.

The volume examines the impact of applying transnational rules on the repertory, methods and practice of legal interpretation. It scrutinizes how globalization processes in law - those reaching top-down (such as European law), as well as those developing bottom-up (such as the new lex mercatoria and international commercial arbitration) - influence the often highly innovative use of various methods of legal rendition. It also examines to what extent they affect supranational and domestic decision-making.Capturing the current development of universalizing tendencies in legal interpretation, the book offers both an extensive theoretical background and thorough studies on adjudicatory practice in such fields as European and constitutional law, international business law and arbitration or criminal law.