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The Seduction Of The Appellate Body: Shrimp/Sea Turtle I And Ii And The Proper Role Of States In Wto Governance, J. Patrick Kelly

Cornell International Law Journal

The Article, proposes new interpretations of GATT Article XX to minimize the harmful effects of recent WTO jurisprudence that threaten to undermine the goals of the trading system and diminish the role of states in policymaking. In the Shrimp/Turtle cases the WTO's Appellate Body ("AB") utilized an "evolutionary" methodology to interpret the conservation of "exhaustible natural resources" exception in Article XX(g) to permit the unilateral regulation by one country of how goods are produced ("PPMs") in other countries. Such an expansive approach to interpretation permits wealthy nations with large markets to unilaterally impose their preferred environmental policies, and presumably other …