Wto Dispute Settlement Understanding

The WTO dispute settlement system has become one of the most dynamic, effective and successful international dispute settlement systems in the world over the past twenty years. This second edition of A Handbook on the WTO Dispute Settlement System has been compiled by the dispute settlement lawyers of the WTO Secretariat with a view to providing a practice-oriented account of the system. In addition to describing the existing rules and procedures, this accessibly written handbook explains how those rules and procedures have been interpreted by dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body, and how they have evolved over time. The handbook provides practical information to help various audiences understand the day-to-day operation of the WTO dispute settlement system.

Addresses the process of dispute resolution and appeal under the DSU of the WTO. This book covers politics and disputes between sovereign nations; power inequities in access to the DSU; specific categories of disputes, such as in agriculture and in intellectual property; and issues pertaining to compliance, enforcement and remedies.

In the course of the first decade of the existence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) has shown itself to be the foundation upon which the stable bas of the organisation rests. In essence, the DSU created a system of binding dispute settlement based on legal rules and procedures closely resembling a domestic, judicially based court system. The DSU established the procedures and rules to solve the dispute between the WTO Members and its formation has unquestionably added to the stability and positively influenced the performance of the international trading system. In short, the DSU is the procedural law within the WTO legal system. Although a strict system of precedent is not contemplated in the DSU itself, a system of de facto precedent has emerged and every panel or appellate body carefully considers past cases in its decisions. Accordingly, a rich body of case law has developed from the jurisprudence of the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB). This major new publication is the first comprehensive exploration of this jurisprudence. Through an article-by-article interpretation of the DSU, this book analyses how the panels and Appellate Body have read, interpreted and construed the provisions of the DSU. Its expert authors provide detailed juridical essays on each of the 27 articles of the DSU, with precise commentary on how panel and Appellate Body reports and arbitral awards (over 100 to date) affect the interpretation and application of the various DSU provisions. The coverage also includes the special or additional rules and procedures referred to in some of the agreements covered by the DSU, especially the manner in which the DSB has applied such rules to anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, and textiles. In addition, the volume reprints all of the DSU-related documents for easy reference. WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: A Detailed Interpretation provides complete and through evaluation of the practical working meaning of the DSU. It will be of invaluable assistance to government officials, legal practitioners, scholars, media participants, non-governmental organisations, and other in their practical and important endeavors. The detailed analysis of this very important legal material will be welcomed by all concerned with matters of world trade and globalisation.

This book examines the effectiveness of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) in pursuing the developmental objectives of the WTO is a whole.

This incisive book provides a comprehensive overview of the WTO dispute settlement practice from 1995 up until the present day, illustrating the need for it to be resurrected from its current state of crisis. The WTO Dispute Settlement System will prove an essential read for students and scholars of WTO law, as well as lawyers, political scientists and policy-oriented economists interested in the WTO dispute settlement system.

Public Private Partnership for WTO Dispute Settlement is an interdisciplinary work examining the growing interaction between business entities and public officials. Crucially, it identifies how this relationship can enable developing countries to effectively utilize the provisions of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Understanding (WTO DSU).

Global Trade Law Series Volume-54 The World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) entered into force in 1995. Since then, it has spawned an extensive body of jurisprudence, making it a highly complex system to navigate. This book provides the first in-depth practical guide to resolving a dispute at the WTO, edited by an international lawyer, who has on-hands experience in WTO litigation. Contributors of individual chapters include government officials responsible for WTO dispute settlement from developing and developed countries, WTO Secretariat officials, a former member of the Appellate Body, academics specializing in international trade and related fields, and lawyers from major law firms specializing in WTO law. Contributors explain, in a detailed manner, the numerous procedural steps and practices developed over the past twenty-five years, on: preparing for WTO litigation; recognizing the importance of WTO consultations; presenting a case before a panel; panel requests and panels’ terms of reference; the role and assistance of the WTO Secretariat; the panel process; rules of evidence; confidentiality and transparency; additional working procedures for the treatment of confidential information; legal remedies to redeem a violation; general considerations for appeal; determining the reasonable period of time for compliance; retaliation proceedings; and use of non-WTO international law. Each contributor identifies the best practices and some of them also suggest potential areas for improvement of the dispute settlement mechanism from their respective points of view. Lawyers and advisors working on WTO law and stakeholders from the private sector, civil society and academia, interested in WTO litigation, will find in one source a deeply informed description of existing dispute resolution practices (some of them previously undocumented) including the most recent jurisprudence clarifying the scope of many procedural rules. With its real-life account of WTO dispute settlement procedures and its key insights and advice from WTO insiders, this book constitutes an expert assessment of a cornerstone of the rules-based multilateral trading system and will prove of enormous value to all stakeholders in international trade.

This book examines aspects of the operation of the WTO dispute settlement system during the first ten years of the WTO. It covers a representative cross-section of the issues and situations WTO Members have dealt with under the Dispute Settlement Understanding. The book is unique in that it includes contributions from virtually the entire gamut of actors involved in the day-to-day operation of the WTO dispute settlement system: Member government representatives, private lawyers who litigate on behalf of Member governments in the system, Appellate Body members, Appellate Body Secretariat staff, and WTO Secretariat staff. It also includes contributions from several academics who closely follow and carefully scrutinize all that goes on within the system. It therefore provides fascinating insights into how the system has operated in practice, and how the lessons of the first decade can be applied to make the system even more successful in the years to come.