The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) is a complex agreement under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and concerns the interplay between governmental measures concerning risk for human, animal and plant life or health, the necessary scientific...

Published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization, the so-called Sutherland Report was to address institutional challenges in the new millennium. This commentary analyzes the report's underlying notion of the organization's self-understanding and critically...

International standards are central to domestic rule-making processes. While these standards-developed outside the WTO-are in and of themselves not binding, the SPS Agreement gives them a quasi-binding character as WTO members must provide scientific justification should they wish to deviate...

The languages of law and science differ considerably in their analysis of scientific evidence. Scientific claims are by their nature tied to the conditions under which a given experiment was carried out and the protocol adhered to. In theory at least, science-based discovery processes do not...

The current crisis engulfing the multilateral trading system has crystalized in the dispute over the (re-)appointment of the members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. While the legislative arm of the organization has never lived up to its potential, its dispute settlement arm...

Domestic regulatory decisions involving matters of human health or the environment are increasingly coming under scrutiny by international courts and tribunals. One of the latest examples concerns an Australian law that mandates the plain packaging of cigarettes and which is being challenged in...

This entry in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law, titled Panel: Dispute Settlement System of the World Trade Organization (WTO), comprehensively covers all aspects of dispute settlement before WTO panels, as well as panel proceedings within the overall WTO dispute...