Epilogue: Towards a Common Law of International Trade

Abstract

It is widely believed that even in the realm of economic law — the law of the market — the European Union (EU) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) represented very different approaches. At the core of the substantive law of the GATT (1947 and 1994) according to this view are the principles of Most Favoured Nation and National Treatment — that is, an interdiction of discrimination and protectionism in the marketplace for goods and services. By contrast, at the core of the legal regime governing the European common marketplace is an interdiction on obstacles to trade, whether discriminatory or otherwise coupled with a legislative power and a legislative programme of harmonisation when elimination of national trade barriers is not possible. The EU and the GATT were considered different in another fundamental sense: the role of law, courts, binding dispute resolution, and the like. This chapter argues that convergence is taking place between the EU and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), leading to a common law of international trade.