The Role of International Law Rules in Interpretation of the WTO Agreements

Document Type : Scientific research

Authors

• Asma Salari ¹
• Sasan Seyrafi ²

¹ assistant professor

² Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law and political science, University of Tehran

10.22067/economlaw.2023.78102.1204

Abstract

Implementation of a legal rule requires its interpretation. According to the documents of the World Trade Organization, this should be done based on the customary rules of interpretation in international law. Among the effective components in the interpretation of the organization's agreements are other rules of international law provided that they are relevant and applicable to the relations of the members of the treaty under interpretation. The components of this component are analyzed by examining the opinions of the organization's dispute resolution panel and the opinions of legal scholars in order to answer the important question of whether other rules of international law are actually applied in the interpretation of the organization's documents with the mentioned conditions.
The sources of this research are library and include the reports of jurists, opinions of international authorities and documents of international law, and the research method is descriptive-analytical.
The results of this study show that the Dispute Settlement Body of the organization, mainly with extreme reliance on the text and wording of the rule under interpretation, as well as a narrow understanding of the word "members", are resistant to the effectiveness of other related international law rules that can be applied among members.
 

Keywords

• : Article 31 (C) (3) of the Convention on Law of the Treaties
• Panels and Appeal Body
• Interpretation
• World Trade Organization

References

 

 

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[32] Somalia v Kenya, ICJ, Preliminary Objections of, 2 February 2017

[33] The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Work, 1886

[34] The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2000

[35] Understanding on Rules and Procedure Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU)

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[37] US v. China, WT/DS394/R, 5 July 2011

[38] US v. China, WT/DS431/R, 26 March 2014

[39] US v. EC, WT/DS26/AB/R, 16 January 1998

[40] US v. EC, WT/DS291/R, 29 September 2006

[41] US v. India, WT/DS50/AB/R, 19 December 1997

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[43] Venezuela & Bolivarian v. US, WT/DS2/AB/R, 29 April 1996

[44] Venezuela & Bolivarian v. US, WT/DS2/AB/R, 29 April 1996