Legal Principles in WTO Disputes

A guide to how the World Trade Organization interprets the rules and solutions to disputes between its Members.

Principles play a crucial role in any dispute settlement system, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) is no exception. However, WTO Panels and the Appellate Body have been too timid in using principles, sometimes avoiding their use when appropriate and at other times using them without fully acknowledging that they are doing so. Perhaps more worryingly, these bodies often fail to delve deeply enough into principles. They tend to overlook key questions such as the legal basis for using a given principle, whether the principle is being used in an interpretative manner or as applicable law and the meaning of the principle in public international law. This book establishes a framework for addressing these questions. The use of such a framework should allay fears and misconceptions about the use of principles and ensure that they are used in a justifiable manner, improving the quality of dispute settlement in the WTO.

1. Introduction; Part I. A Framework for Principles: 2. Principles of particular relevance to the WTO; 3. Legal basis for using principles in WTO disputes; Part II. Selected Principles Examined: 4. Good faith; 5. Due process; 6. Proportionality; 7. Special and differential treatment; 8. Conclusion.

World Trade Organization tribunals that hear trade disputes use principles of law to guide their interpretation of rules and find solutions to disputes between Members. This book addresses the important aspects of how the WTO, as an institution with its own body of rules, interacts with public international law.

Dr Andrew D. Mitchell is a Professor at Melbourne Law School. Andrew studied law at the University of Cambridge (PhD), Harvard Law School (LLM) and Melbourne Law School (LLB (Hons), Grad Dip Intl L). In 2007, following a nomination by the Australian government, the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body added him to the Indicative List of Governmental and Non-Governmental Panelists to hear WTO disputes. From 2003–2005, Andrew was a Consultant to the International Monetary Fund in Geneva, focusing on WTO issues. He has previously worked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Davis Polk and Wardwell, and Allens Arthur Robinson. Andrew also consults for the private sector and governmental and non-governmental organisations including the International Development Law Organization, the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Health Organization. He has held visiting positions at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the London School of Economics, the International Arbitration Group of WilmerHale and the Institute of International Economic Law.