Research On The Method Of Law Interpretation Used During The WTO Dispute Settlement

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has now been operating for 12 years, and there is little doubt it has had a very successful launch and a vast future. One of the more interesting current aspects of the WTO is the focus on the dispute settlement rules as established by the new Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU),which is part of the extraordinarily broad agreement embodying the legal obligations in the Uruguay round texts. Because of the implications of many of the legal obligations in the Uruguay round texts, and because they were negotiated among more than 120 participating national governments, it is not surprising that one can find ambiguities, omissions, and other troublesome interpretive problems in this vast treaty. For this reason ,The dispute settlement process become crucial, since it is one of the principal means for resolving the inevitable differences that arise about the various legal obligations of the world trading system. The author deems it necessary to conduct a research on the method which is used in the process of treaty interpretation by the dispute settlement body, especially by the panel and the appellate body.Chapter one deals with fundamental theoretical issues concerning the method of the interpretation of the international treaty.Chapter two engages in case analysis, the purpose of which is to expound how the common 5 methods of law interpretation be used by the dispute settlement body.Chapter three, the author puts forth proposals that might be of help to overcome the limitations of the method of treaty interpretation.