On The Dispute Settlement Mechanism Under The Free Trade Agreements Of The European Union

The development history of the Free Trade Agreements (for short as FTAs)of theEuropean Union has been nearly half a century. Unlike the European internal politicaland economic integration that has fruitful achievements, the subject that EU as awhole entity, signs FTA with another country or region has barely been touched. Justlike the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement ofDisputes (for short as DSU) is of great importance toward the World TradeOrganization (for short as WTO), the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAsis critical to its function. Comparing to the frequent use of dispute settlementmechanism by the North American Free Trade Agreement (for short as NAFTA), thesituation of the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAs is definitely notoptimistic. Until now, there is no one single dispute which has been raised under thedispute settlement mechanism of EU FTAs.Hence, the main purpose of this paper is toanalyze the reasons why the mechanism can not be made full use of, and discuss theimprovement of the mechanism, hoping that this could change the embarrassingsituation.The article is divided into5separate parts. Part one is an introduction about thedevelopment of EU FTAs, gives a general introduction about the developmentsituation of the EU FTAs and the primary methods in the peaceful solving of theinternational disputes. Part two is a textual analysis to the EU FTAs, and based on that,generalizes the regularity defects of it and its potential conflict with the DSU. Partthree makes a comparison between the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAsand the dispute settlement mechanism of the NAFTA and discusses the improvementof the EU FTAs dispute settlement mechanism. Part four discusses the terms ofsettlement in light of the potential conflicts between the dispute settlement mechanismof EU FTAs and the DSU. Part five is about the probe into the future development ofthe dispute settlement mechanism of EU FTAs.part one at first gives an introduction about the development situation of the EUFTAs, shows the statistics of the FTAs which has been signed by EU from the60s of the last century. Generalizes the primary method which has been used to settleinternational disputes within the territory of the international law, and therefore pointout that the dispute settlement mechanism of EU FTAs has been developed andevolved based on these methods. And hence draw off the Quasi-judicial disputesettlement mode, and lay basis for the part below for the textual analysis.Part two is a textual analysis about the dispute settlement mechanism of EUFTAs,In which analyses the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAs in thepre-WTO times and the post-WTO times separately, points out the transitionalperiod which the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAs has experienced fromthe initial,solely depending on the political and diplomatic means to the graduallyintroduction of the quasi-judicial dispute settlement mode. By analyzing the defects ofthe dispute settlement mechanism of the on-going EU FTAs and its positive conflictsof jurisdiction with the DSU, it points out that these are the main reason why it cannot be made full use of.Part three makes a lateral comparison between the dispute settlement mechanismof the EU FTAs and the chapter20of the NAFTA. Discuss the improvement for thedispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAs by three aspects, which are: thepolitical means of dispute resolution; arbitration initiating procedures; application ofthe arbitral decision.Part four is an analysis about conflicts between the dispute settlementmechanism of the EU FTAs and DSU triggered by the simultaneous actions andrepeating actions and its solving method, and this analysis is based on the discuss ofthe practice of the jurisdiction conflicts between NAFTA and the WTO disputesettlement mechanism.It proposes that the principle of judicial economy, the principleof judicial comity and the article3of the Vienna convention on the law of treatiescould be a way to harmonize the conflicts between the DSU and regional disputesettlement mechanism. Suggests that the jurisdiction of regional dispute settlementmechanism should been expanded.The last part is the conclusion, which is about the future development of the dispute settlement mechanism of the EU FTAs and the enlightenment of it towardChina.