On The Discretion Of The WTO Dispute Settlement Body

As one of the cores of WTO legal system, WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) provides a rule-oriented, exclusive and mandatory means of dispute resolution. It is observed that the development of WTO legal system started from power-oriented to rule-oriented and ultimately to a principle-oriented process in which the Dispute Settlement Body(DSB) gained more and more discretionary authority. In order to find the major modes of DSB' s reasoning and facilitate China' s involvement in DSM, the article, on the basis of case study, examines the main characteristics and developing trend in discretion of DSB .The article consists of five parts. The first part traces to the source of discretion and gives a brief introduction of its component parts. The auther analyzes the legal priciple of the discretion of DSB. The second, third and forth parts examine the discretion of DSB in respects of WTO rules interpretation, burden of proof, the third-party participation, concluding that the discretion of DSB will play a more important role in its future practice. In the fifth part, the influence of the discretion of DSB on China is discussed. The article also gives some advices to policy-maker in technical aspect.WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism is maturing along with the practice of DSB. With the WTO legal system transforming from a power-oriented system to a rule-oriented and even principle-oriented one, by applying the discretion endowed by or derived from WTO laws, DSB efficiently makes up the deficiency of dispute settlement in procedure disposal. It is believed that the DSB' s authority will be more firmly established through more of its fair judgements. Its practice and jurisprudence will be ultimately legitimated in WTO framework.