Abstract
This paper presents salient facts on the performance of WTO dispute settlement, using an updated dataset on cases adjudicated between 1992 and mid 2020. The dataset provides a comprehensive compilation of information on WTO disputes, including complainants, respondents and third parties; the substantive matters tabled; the WTO provisions invoked; the claims that are accepted or rejected by adjudicating bodies; the time involved to complete the consultation, panel and appeal (Appellate Body) stages; and the identity of panelists and how they were appointed. We highlight elements of the operation of the system that are salient to WTO reform discussions, while drawing attention to the richness of the dataset by highlighting stylized facts in the hope others will use the data to investigate specific research questions and hypotheses.
Highlights
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons, European Law Commons, International
The situation is somewhat different before the Appellate Body (AB) as both the original complainant and the original respondent can table claims/complaints as long as these do not constitute issues that were not discussed before panels
As a result, when the complainant submits a Request for Establishment of panel, it will at most include the claims it had included in its Request for Consultations
Summary
A total of 623 bilateral disputes were adjudicated between 1 January 1995 and 1 July 2020. In practice panels exceed statutory timelines by a greater margin than the AB, something that has not been stressed by the US in its critique of the WTO dispute settlement system This issue mostly arose in the early years of the WTO – see Figure 1. WTO members can choose to act as complainants, and/or participate as a third party to a dispute. DSU Art. 27.1 makes clear that the institutional function of the WTO Secretariat is to assist panel during proceedings the dataset only contains information on the members of the WTO. In synthesizing the bilateral dispute data contained in the dataset we classify the 164 WTO members into five groups, two comprising developed economies and the other three spanning emerging and developing economies, as follows: G2 IND.
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