Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization: Practice and Procedure

Dispute settlement has a hidden side. While academics have explored the 'philosophy' of the World Trade Organization (WTO), no attempt has been made to examine it from a practical standpoint. Like most international regimes, the WTO has not paid particular attention to its procedural aspects. Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization is the first book to remove the mystery from the WTO's complex procedural law & to make it accessible for practitioners. Through a careful examination of actual practice, including their own experience, the expert authors reveal this hidden, yet crucial side of dispute settlement. Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization guides the practitioner from the very initial stages of the proceeding through to its completion. No other work does this. Its useful features include the following: . appendices containing the texts of the applicable agreements (most notably the WTO Understanding on Rules & Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, dispute settlement provisions of all other WTO agreements, applicable GATT instruments, & the relevant articles of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties); . footnotes to relevant WTO & secondary sources; . organizational charts of the WTO, the dispute settlement process & procedures before the Textile Monitoring Body; . indexes; & . tables & charts of all cases since January 1, 1995. The authors of Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization are a former official of the Legal Affairs Division of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) & the WTO who has advised & assisted numerous panels, & a private practitioner who has counselled & represented governments & private clients with an interest in the outcomes of WTO & GATT dispute settlement proceedings. Their hands-on guide addresses all of the procedural questions that they actually confronted in the world of dispute settlement. Efficient, lucid, & up-to-date--nothing else comes close to the practicality of Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization. For these reasons, this work is an essential resource for practitioners (those who prepare & present cases to dispute settlement of the WTO & its Appellate Body & those who advise or represent governments & private clients with an interest in the outcomes), diplomats, government lawyers, universities, trade delegates, political scientists, & academics studying international trade or examining dispute settlement from a comparative standpoint.