The Research Of Judicial Economy、Interim Review And Decision Making Process In WTO Appellate Procedure

As one of the most important international trade dispute resolution mechanism, theWTO dispute settlement mechanism has the characteristics of quasi-judicial、neutraland authoritative. It has become the most important way to solve trade disputesbetween countries. Compared to the dispute settlement mechanism in the period ofthe GATT, the current dispute settlement mechanism under the framework ofUnderstanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes(hereinafter referred to as the DSU) is more perfect and standardization. One of themost typical procedural change is increasing the appeal review procedure after thepanel procedure,which makes the dispute settlement mechanism institutionalize. Sofar, as a global economic stability procedural safeguard, the WTO dispute settlementmechanism has played an important role in the international trade stage.It hasbecome the mainstay of the multilateral trade, and the achievement it has made formaintaining the global trade order and promoting the global trade liberalization isobvious to see.The WTO dispute settlement mechanism adopts the way of "quasi-must be passed"to get through the panel report,which increases the risk of legal mistakes in the panelreport to the extent，and the establishment of Appellate Body alleviates this risk. Thisis also a very important performance of the principle of justice in the trade disputesettlement field. Of course, the appeal process is not perfect, it also has a lot of issuesto discuss. This paper summarizes the panel procedure, and does a comprehensivetheory and empirical discussion as to the judicial economic exercise in the appealprocedure, the necessity of increasing an interim review to the appeal procedure andthe decision-making procedure of Appellate Body, so as to deepen the understandingof the appeal process and make a beneficial exploration of the future direction of the organization.Judicial economic principle has been extensively applied in the WTO panel stage,and the application in the appeal process also has been confirmed and practiced byAppellate Body. The judicial economy in appeal process includes procedural andsubstantive judicial economy. The substantive judicial economy includes two kinds ofcircumstances, that is the Appellate Body’s exercise of judicial economy for thoseissues which are not necessary for solving the disputes and the judicial economy asjudicial avoid. The judicial economic exercise in the appeal procedure can not onlyhelp the organization save much judicial resource, but also has certain feasibility.What is worth mention is that the judicial economic exercise in the appeal stage isstill be applied as an exception principle.The interim review process in panel stage provides the parties an opportunity toclarify fact issues of the case before jurisdiction, and enhances the parties’ control tothe dispute settlement process,and ensure the accuracy of the panel report on thefacts, but at the same time it also limits the judicial and authoritative characteristicsof Appellate Body and put it in a bad passive position.In addition, the functions ofinterim review process are restricted for a variety of reasons. One of the functions ofthe interim review is that it can provides the parties an opportunity to reach a mutualagreed solution before the final jurisdiction. But based on the reality and their owninterests, the parties’ motivation to reach such an agreement is not strong, which thecase law has proved. In addition, the existence of the appeal process also makes itsfunction of clarifying the law aspects restricted. Therefore, it is not necessary to retainthe interim process in the panel stage, let alone to expand more application to theappeal stage.The decision-making process of Appellate Body is considered as a perfect model inthe decision-making field. It not only meets the strict time limit, but also tries to avoidconflicts, and maintains the high unification of the opinion.Economics and lawdemocratic decision analysis method and the United States Supreme Court decisionprocedure provide us a certain idea to analyze the decision-making process ofAppellate Body. The Appellate Body decision-making procedure includes one three-people division decision-making process and the opinion exchange process. The opinion exchange process makes all the Appellate Body members participate into thecase, although the final decision is made by the division members, the none-divisionmembers have right to issue a dissenting opinion,which force the division membersto weigh different aspects of interests. This can ensure the objective fairness of thedecision-making process to the extent. And the final decision-making power is still inthe control of the division members, which can ensure the high efficiency of thedecision-making process. The decision-making process of Appellate Body achievesefficient decision-making with low cost.Its techniques and strategies are worth ourusing for reference.