Fairness as Fidelity to Making the WTO Fully Responsive to All its Members

ASIL Proceedings of the 97th Annual Meeting, pp. 157-167, April 2-5, 2003

11 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2004

See all articles by James Thuo Gathii

James Thuo Gathii

Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Abstract

Is there is a bias in the way in which international trade rules are crafted, applied, and adjudicated between developing and developed countries? By bias, I mean no more than seeking to examine the choice between alternative meanings ascribed to a particular rule in its application by an agency or at the adjudication stage by a domestic judicial body or an international tribunal. In this article, I begin by tracing bias through egalitarian and libertarian liberalism in the now popular fairness analysis of GATT/WTO rules. While both these forms of fairness analysis have some merit, my paper demonstrates that neither of them adequately addresses problems of the trading regime in so far as developing country interests are involved. These approaches do not focus on the choices made in crafting rules one way as opposed to another or applying and adjudicating the rules in a manner that precludes equally legitimate conclusions consistent with the interests of the most vulnerable members of the international trading regime. Ultimately, I argue that developing countries should consistently contest such outcomes with alternatives that serve their best interests rather than merely focusing on negotiating the shape of the norms. In so doing, developing country members would seek to make the WTO responsive to all and not just to some of its members.

Suggested Citation

Gathii, James Thuo, Fairness as Fidelity to Making the WTO Fully Responsive to All its Members. ASIL Proceedings of the 97th Annual Meeting, pp. 157-167, April 2-5, 2003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=594485

James Thuo Gathii (Contact Author)

Loyola University Chicago School of Law ( email )

25 East Pearson
Chicago, IL 60611
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
216
Abstract Views
1,442
Rank
256,055
PlumX Metrics