Study Of The Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism Of The Environmental Exception

At the end of 20 century, with the development of global economy, as well as the growing acknowledgement of the importance of environmental protection by the whole international society, the conflict between the environmental conservation and WTO legal system has become the hot topic among the WTO organization, the scholars, NGOs. All these are implied in the general environmental exception clause . Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:(b) necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health;(g) relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources if such measures are made effective in conjunction with restrictions on domestic production or consumption;All the author want to argue is how best to reconcile economic integration and environmental protection. The essay focuses on the representative case of Asbestos and turtle to make a comprehensive study. The essay is made of four parts.In the first part, the author summarize the nature and character of the clause, review the application history of the clause. The author points out, the exception clause is the definite and conditioned exception to the duties in other WTO clauses, to make a reasoned balance between the member's right to cite the clause and the member's duty to respect the other member's right.In the second part, the author gives a detailed description of the clause application under the DSB mechanism, through the typical case of the Asbestos and Turtle, the author analysis the conditions of citing the (b),(g) and chapeau.In the third part, the author explains the application of the treaty explanation rules of the Viena convention in the general environmental exception clause, which includes the text explanation rule, the system explanation rule, and the purpose explanation rule.At last, the defect of the clause ,the evaluation ,the development trend are also...