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International Trade Law

International economic law

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Dissent As Dialectic: Horizontal And Vertical Disagreement In Wto Dispute Settlement, Meredith Kolsky Lewis Jan 2012

Dissent As Dialectic: Horizontal And Vertical Disagreement In Wto Dispute Settlement, Meredith Kolsky Lewis

Journal Articles

This article examines the phenomena of dissent within WTO dispute settlement panels and within Appellate Body divisions ("horizontal disagreement") and the failure of certain WTO dispute settlement panels to follow previous rulings of the Appellate Body ("vertical disagreement"). With respect to horizontal disagreement, the article responds to a recent critique of my earlier piece on the subject (The Lack of Dissent in WTO Dispute Settlement, 9 J. INT’L ECON. L. 895 (2006)). With respect to vertical disagreement, the article examines whether there are textual or normative reasons why panels should not disagree with the Appellate Body. It argues that the …


The Prisoners' Dilemma Posed By Free Trade Agreements: Can Open Access Provisions Provide An Escape?, Meredith Kolsky Lewis Jan 2011

The Prisoners' Dilemma Posed By Free Trade Agreements: Can Open Access Provisions Provide An Escape?, Meredith Kolsky Lewis

Journal Articles

This article explains why free trade agreements (FTAs) that are not compliant with the spirit of GATT Article XXIV’s requirement that such agreements cover “substantially all the trade” between the parties pose serious challenges for the multilateral trading system. It notes the paradoxical behavior of WTO members in continuing to negotiate such free trade agreements to the detriment of the WTO. It characterizes this paradox as a form of Prisoners’ Dilemma, in that although members would be better off pursuing trade liberalization via the WTO, their dominant strategy is to pursue FTAs. The article goes on to propose a pragmatic …