Power, governance and dispute settlement: An institutional and legal analysis of Canadian membership at the World Trade Organization, 1995--2005

The WTO has accomplished a significant institutional reorientation of the international economic law, pulling together many disparate jurisdictions of trade regulation and binding them through a new legal dispute settlement mechanism. With its expanded mandate, the WTO has become a commercial court, a conduit for trade relations and a controversial new governance concept---a broad and contradictory set of institutional rubrics that I have termed the three C's of WTO governance. Canada is an ideal case study of transnational legal ordering. The Canadian economy is highly dependent on a single export market, yet Canada is at the forefront of multilateral trade diplomacy. Canadians vociferously defend their sovereignty and policy autonomy; but they also respond positively to the expansion of public international law.; The WTO's relationship to the international legal system is a timely concern with large possibilities for the future of public policy. In some ways, the creation of the WTO was an important step forward for trade governance. It is an institutional hub and legal architecture for an increasingly important zone of international public law. Nevertheless, the outcomes of dispute settlement are not predictable and compliance is fraught with enforcement difficulties, which have become more pronounced over the past decade. Canadian policy makers need a calculated, comprehensive and creative approach to understanding Canada's position in the expanding universe of public international law.