Although the 13 United States courts of appeals are the final word on 99 percent of all federal cases, there is no detailed account of how these courts operate. How do judges decide which decisions are binding precedents and which are not? Who decides whether appeals are argued orally? What administrative structures do these courts have? The answers to these and hundreds of other questions are largely unknown, not only to lawyers and legal academics but also to many within the judiciary itself. Written and Unwritten is the first book to provide an inside look at how these courts operate. An unprecedented contribution to the field of judicial administration, the book collects the differing local rules and internal procedures of each court of appeals. In-depth interviews of the chief judges of all 13 circuits and surveys of all clerks of court reveal previously undisclosed practices and customs.

This chapter contains a comprehensive, step-by-step analysis of the consultations phase in WTO dispute settlement. Then the chapter examines the practice and procedure used to establish a WTO panel and the composition of the panel. The chapter then analyzes the panel process step-by-step, including the organizational meeting, the working procedures, the written submissions to the panel, the hearings of the panel, the interim report, and the final report. The chapter also discusses the role of third parties and of the WTO Secretariat in the panel process.