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A product of fragmentation of international law, the issue of jurisdictional conflicts between the WTO and Regional Trade Agreements is of systemic importance. Not only does it raise the potential problem of inconsistent rulings for WTO/RTA Members, it requires the WTO Tribunal to confront the very nature and scope of its jurisdiction, the admissibility of cases and its applicable law, all highly controversial and unsettled issues in international law. This thesis aims to present a framework that can hopefully serve to offer solutions on the basis of the current WTO legal system. Under this framework, where WTO proceedings are initiated in a genuinely abusive manner, the WTO Tribunal would be able to dismiss the WTO complaint for lack of jurisdiction or on the grounds of inadmissibility. This does not mean a general deference to RTA Tribunals, but, rather, would reflect the WTO Tribunal's cognizance of the relevant WTO Members' true intentions; by giving effect to the Members' true intentions, the WTO Tribunal could mitigate fragmentation of international law, thereby securing and promoting the coherence in the international legal system.
In the last several decades there has been an exponential growth in the number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). In addition to creating a wide overlap of substantive rights and obligations with the World Trade Organization (WTO), many RTAs also incorporate legalized mechanisms to resolve trade disputes, operating in parallel to the compulsory, automatic and exclusive system of dispute settlement under the WTO. This thesis sought to examine the possibility of jurisdictional conflicts between the regional and multilateral mechanisms and address potential ways to respond to this negative phenomenon. To verify the possibility of jurisdictional conflicts, the thesis examined the key features of WTO and RTA dispute settlement, the constituting elements of a jurisdictional conflict, and the practice of jurisdictional interaction between the two systems. This analysis demonstrated that it may be possible for the regional and multilateral mechanisms to exercise jurisdiction simultaneously or consecutively over essentially the same disputes. Importantly, even though this problem has not actually materialized to a substantial extent, future jurisdictional conflicts would still be quite likely, especially when RTA mechanisms may become more established and active over time. It is thus important to think through possible solutions to enhance the compatible coexistence between the WTO and RTA dispute settlement systems.Having determined the possible occurrence of jurisdictional conflicts, the thesis then investigated whether there are norms that can assist a determination as to which forum should have jurisdiction and which one has to give way in cases of jurisdictional conflicts. In doing so, the thesis developed the relevant frameworks to assess the applicability of RTA jurisdiction clauses and common jurisdiction-regulating norms, such as res judicata, lis pendens, forum non conveniens, comity, and abuse of rights, in WTO disputes. The examination revealed that these norms might not be satisfactorily applied in WTO disputes to regulate WTO-RTA jurisdictional conflicts. In the context of WTO law, where the relationship between WTO and RTA dispute settlement is not explicitly regulated, the studied inapplicability of norms determining jurisdictional priority means that multiple proceedings over essentially the same disputes before the WTO and RTA fora might be an unavoidable phenomenon. On the basis of this finding, the thesis turned to a new frontier and investigated whether there may be rules of international law that can enable tribunals to achieve a reasonable level of consistency between them in adjudicating essentially the same disputes. This inquiry established that principles of treaty interpretation, particularly Articles 31(3)(c) and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), may facilitate the integration of WTO and RTA laws into each other in multiple proceedings, thereby reducing the risk of unreasonably inconsistent interpretations and findings over essentially the same disputes. In the absence of explicit WTO provisions regulating the jurisdictional interaction between WTO and RTA dispute settlement and effective rules to establish jurisdictional priority between the competing proceedings, the interpretative tools appear to provide a practical and promising way to mitigate some negative effects arising from conflicts of jurisdiction.
It is becoming increasingly evident that traditional sovereignty is simply out of date. Instead, what we might call 'cooperative' sovereignty – which focuses on communication and interaction – is more responsive to the realities of interdependent economies in the twenty-first century. Nowhere is this more salient than in the area of dispute resolution, especially as labour, intellectual property, and the environment can no longer be evaded in trade negotiations. This ground-breaking book suggests that it is this shift in perspective that has given rise to the proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and the inevitable overlaps and tensions between their provisions and those of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The author examines this phenomenon in great detail, and offers viable recommendations to restore coherence in the global trading system without upsetting the rights and obligations of WTO Member States. Because the WTO and RTAs must be viewed as layers of one system and must therefore have a relationship that extends to dispute settlement, such principles of subsidiarity as autonomy, mutual assistance, and flexibility are key to a successful institutional relationship between the WTO and RTAs. From this theoretical springboard, the author proceeds to analyse the following issues and more: – the relationship between WTO and RTAs based on Article XXIV of GATT; - the extent to which WTO panels can apply RTA law; - the extent to which the WTO panels can hear RTA claims; - opportunity for RTA Members to secure preliminary rulings and advisory opinions from the WTO; - recognition by WTO panels of the results of litigation or arbitration that took place at the RTA level; - opportunity for RTA Members to appeal RTA dispute settlement decisions to the WTO; and - clarification of WTO rules designed to enable RTA activities (or intervene if necessary). Major cases decided at the WTO and RTA levels that manifest conflict between RTAs and the WTO are fully analysed. Confronting directly the stagnation in negotiating and concluding new trade agreements at the multilateral level and the fragmentation of the international trade law system, this important book shows clearly how the institutional relationship between the WTO and RTAs can be restructured with a view to establishing mutual recognition of the judgments of both. In a nutshell, the book calls for reconfiguration of WTO Dispute Settlement Body to perform functions of World Trade Court that is capable of hearing disputes arising between WTO Members, RTA Members and Non-WTO Members. It will prove invaluable to all involved in the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements at every level.
This volume contains a collection of studies examining trade-related issues negotiated in regional trade agreements (RTAs) and how RTAs are related to the WTO's rules. While previous work has focused on subsets of RTAs, these studies are based on what is probably the largest dataset used to date, and highlight key issues that have been negotiated in all RTAs notified to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). New rules within RTAs are compared to rules agreed upon by WTO members. The extent of their divergences and the potential implications for parties to RTAs, as well as for WTO members that are not parties to RTAs, are examined. This volume makes an important contribution to the current debate on the role of the WTO in regulating international trade and how WTO rules relate to new rules being developed by RTAs.
This tribute to Professor Detlev Vagts of the Harvard Law School brings together his colleagues at Harvard and the American Society of International Law, as well as academics, judges and practitioners, many of them his former students. Their essays span the entire spectrum of modern transnational law: international law in general; transnational economic law; and transnational lawyering and dispute resolution. The contributors evaluate established fields of transnational law, such as the protection of property and investment, and explore new areas of law which are in the process of detaching themselves from the nation-state such as global administrative law and the regulation of cross-border lawyering. The implications of decentralised norm-making, the proliferation of dispute settlement mechanisms and the rising backlash against global legal interdependence in the form of demands for preserving state legal autonomy are also examined.
One of the most prominent and urgent problems in international governance is how the different branches and norms of international law interact and what to do in the event of conflict. With no single 'international legislator' and a multitude of states, international organisations and tribunals making and enforcing the law, the international legal system is decentralised. This leads to a wide variety of international norms, ranging from customary international law and general principles of law, to multilateral and bilateral treaties on trade, the environment, human rights, the law of the sea, etc. Pauwelyn provides a framework on how these different norms interact, focusing on the relationship between the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other rules of international law. He also examines the hierarchy of norms within the WTO treaty. His recurring theme is how to marry trade and non-trade rules, or economic and non-economic objectives at the international level.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.
Nation states have long and successfully claimed to be the proper and sovereign forum for determining a country's international economic policies. Increasingly, however, supranational and non-governmental actors are moving to the front of the stage. New forms of multilateral and global policy-making have emerged, including states and national administrations, key international organizations, international conferences, multinational enterprises, and a wide range of transnational pressure groups and NGOs that all claim their share in exercising power and influence on international and domestic policy-making. In honour of Professor Mitsuo Matsushita's intellectual contributions to the field of international economic law, this volume reflects on the current state and the future of international economic law. The book addresses a broad spectrum of themes in contemporary international economic regulations and focuses specifically on the significant areas of Professor Matsushita's scholarship, including the rise of the soft-law mechanism in international economic regulation, the role of the WTO and dispute settlement, and specific areas such as competition, subsidies, anti-dumping, intellectual property, and natural resources. Part one of the volume provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of the rule-based international dispute settlement mechanisms; Part two investigates the normative influences to and from WTO law; and Part three focuses on policy and law-making issues.