Rules, Effects and the Structure of WTO Law

14 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2008 Last revised: 9 Jul 2008

See all articles by Chios C. Carmody

Chios C. Carmody

University of Western Ontario - Faculty of Law

Date Written: June 30, 2008

Abstract

The WTO Agreement is said to be unconcerned with trade effects. Instead, WTO member countries incur state responsibility on the basis of their acts alone. This responsibility is reinforced by the irrebuttable presumption contained in DSU Art. 3.8 and longstanding practice, which together constitute the core of WTO law. At the same time, trade effects do have a subsisting importance in the assertion of certain trade-related rights, including the ability to invoke countermeasures, in non-violation cases, and inferentially in the determination of violation. This suggests that the idealism inherent in a presumed violation is reinforced or tempered by a certain realism about prevailing conditions. It also suggests that the evidentiary distinctions between presumption and proof in the WTO Agreement are a sign of a deeper conceptual divide between contending yet complementary modes of legal thought in the treaty.

Keywords: WTO, WTO agreement, State responsibility, Trade effects, Trade-related rights, Countermeasures, Judicial presumptions, Inferences, Non-violation cases

JEL Classification: F02, F10, F13, F14, F15, K33

Suggested Citation

Carmody, Chios C., Rules, Effects and the Structure of WTO Law (June 30, 2008). Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) Inaugural Conference 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1153547 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1153547

Chios C. Carmody (Contact Author)

University of Western Ontario - Faculty of Law ( email )

London, Ontario N6A 3K7 N6A 3K7
Canada

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