Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Table of dispute settlement cases and reports
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I The WTO at Ten
- PART II Accomplishments and Future Prospects of the WTO Dispute Settlement System
- 3 The WTO dispute settlement system after ten years: the first decade's promises and challenges
- 4 WTO dispute settlement practice 1995–2005: lessons from the past and future challenges
- 5 Evaluating WTO dispute settlement: what results have been achieved through consultations and implementation of panel reports?
- 6 The responsibilities of a WTO Member found to have violated WTO law
- 7 ‘Public–private partnerships’ in WTO dispute settlement: the US and EU experience
- 8 Accomplishments of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism
- 9 Arbitration as an alternative to litigation in the WTO: observations in the light of the 2005 banana tariff arbitrations
- 10 The evolving WTO dispute settlement system
- PART III Asian Perspectives on WTO Dispute Settlement
- PART IV The Doha Development Agenda and Beyond
- PART V Asian Regional Integration and the Multilateral Trading System
- Index
10 - The evolving WTO dispute settlement system
from PART II - Accomplishments and Future Prospects of the WTO Dispute Settlement System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Table of dispute settlement cases and reports
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I The WTO at Ten
- PART II Accomplishments and Future Prospects of the WTO Dispute Settlement System
- 3 The WTO dispute settlement system after ten years: the first decade's promises and challenges
- 4 WTO dispute settlement practice 1995–2005: lessons from the past and future challenges
- 5 Evaluating WTO dispute settlement: what results have been achieved through consultations and implementation of panel reports?
- 6 The responsibilities of a WTO Member found to have violated WTO law
- 7 ‘Public–private partnerships’ in WTO dispute settlement: the US and EU experience
- 8 Accomplishments of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism
- 9 Arbitration as an alternative to litigation in the WTO: observations in the light of the 2005 banana tariff arbitrations
- 10 The evolving WTO dispute settlement system
- PART III Asian Perspectives on WTO Dispute Settlement
- PART IV The Doha Development Agenda and Beyond
- PART V Asian Regional Integration and the Multilateral Trading System
- Index
Summary
The dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is generally regarded as a big success. Most commentators agree that the system has worked remarkably well in its first ten years. Many factors explain the system's success. In this chapter, I focus on one factor that, in my view, helps explain this success: the WTO dispute settlement system's ability to evolve. Indeed, the WTO dispute settlement system has not remained static. Rather, the system has been evolving as each case raises new issues and poses new challenges.
Negotiations to reform the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) have been ongoing for several years. Some of the proposals that have been tabled seek to address perceived deficiencies in the system. Other proposals are more ambitious and would change the nature of the system. While the negotiations have not advanced as rapidly as initially hoped, this does not seem to pose a threat to the functioning of the system. The system has been able to overcome, in practice, some of the deficiencies that have been identified. At the same time, the system continues to evolve in such a way that new solutions could be found for issues that may arise in the future.
The WTO dispute settlement system has been able to evolve because DSU rules provide a degree of flexibility to WTO Members. The ability to evolve is also linked to the fact that the DSU leaves the WTO adjudicative bodies – that is, panels and the Appellate Body – some discretion in adopting their own working procedures.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The WTO in the Twenty-first CenturyDispute Settlement, Negotiations, and Regionalism in Asia, pp. 248 - 258Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
- 1
- Cited by