The article discusses the WTO-compatibility of a reduced VAT rate for 'environmentally friendly' products as proposed in the European Commission's Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy. It analyses certain hypothetical cases in the light of GATT Articles III and XX and the corresponding WTO...

In the Hormones case the Appellate Body has sharply criticized the legal analysis of the lower panels, upholding seven findings, reversing six and modifying four. This article looks critically at the Appellate Body's interpretation of certain issues and concludes that its ruling contains a...

Enforcing international law remains problematic: what happens if a sovereign state refuses to comply with its obligations, even after an international adjudicatory body has ruled in its disfavour? The solution offered under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system has been to authorize the...

Recent case law suggests that the European courts are rethinking their position in respect of international law. On the one hand, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is extending its case law on the WTO, denying 'direct effect' to all of its provisions, to other major international treaties,...

The current system of remedies in the WTO provides Members with a choice between trade compensation or retaliation. There is a problem in that trade compensation is only possible with the consent of the non-complying country and thus often remains theoretical, while retaliation has the...