The dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization prides itself on its high degree of judicial independence and the impartiality of its adjudicators. Yet compared to other international tribunals, WTO members exert considerable political control over WTO adjudicators. Contestation...

Global markets have become increasingly integrated both in terms of the size of trade and investment flows and in terms of the number of players involved. Global trade and investment flows are governed by a set of national, regional and global legal frameworks that interact at different levels....

This case note describes the background, context and most important findings of the December 2009 Appellate Body Report on China - Audiovisuals. The case is a landmark for three reasons: first, confirmation that the World Trade Organization defines 'goods' (as opposed to 'services') based on...

Hope as well as fear was running wild when in 1995 the multilateral trading system incorporated the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights. As one author put it, “the [IP] component of the WTO [World Trade Organization] Agreement represented a revolution in international intellectual...

This paper provides an overview of issues and progress in research on WTO dispute settlement. It also points out the remaining gaps in the existing literature. For reasons of space, the focus is primarily on research by political scientists and legal scholars. We pay only passing attention to...

The WTO's initial reaction to the 2008-2009 financial crisis was taken mainly by its managerial arm, that is, by the Director-General (DG) and the Secretariat and not by its legislative or judicial bodies. This is a novelty for the WTO and illustrates the emergence, even at the otherwise...