WTO - Institutions and Dispute Settlement

Two of the greatest achievements of the Uruguay Round were the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as - compared to the GATT - a fully-fledged international organization and the creation of a new, uniform and binding dispute settlement system. While the failure of the Ministerial Conferences in Seattle and Cancun revealed the first cracks in the institutional structure of the WTO, the operation of the new dispute settlement system has so far been a remarkable success. In a practical and authoritative article-by-article account, this volume covers the legislative history, interpretation and practical application of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization, Articles XXII, XXIII, and XXIV GATT 1994, the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the Trade Review Policy Mechanism, the Understanding in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under the GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV GATT 1994. Written by a team of distinguished scholars and practitioners, the volume is an indispensable work of reference for all those interested in the WTO institutional fundamentals and the dispute settlement system (international lawyers, scholars and students of WTO law, diplomats and international civil servants, members of NGOs).