The king is dead, long live the …: Evaluating Alternatives to the WTO Appellate Body Within and Outside the WTO Regime

Abstract

Since December 2019, the kingdom of world trade law has fallen into an interregnum. The king that used to be the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, was dethroned at the hands of the then incumbent US government, which refused to duly appoint new members to fill its vacancies. Staunch royalists have since been looking for ways to salvage the dispute settlement mechanism, once revered as the ‘crown jewels’, as well as for a deserving heir apparent. While there seems no path to structural reform of the Appellate Body, a wide range of alternatives presents itself to WTO members. This article provides a systematic overview of such alternatives both within and outside the WTO regime, sampling some that are already available and others currently subject to lively debate. The alternatives on sample are (cross)‌evaluated against a benchmark that sources the key characteristics of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. On that basis, the article finds the most promising alternatives in the concert of panels of Preferential Trade Agreements and the most recent Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement.