The World Trade Organization and the evolution of international economic law

International economic law is evolving toward an unprecedented degree of institutionalization and supranational legal authority. This supranationalism is expressed through the availability of legalistic and more coercive mechanisms to develop international legal obligations and to enforce them upon states. Building on new conceptions of sovereignty emerging in international economic law, this thesis examines the legal order established by the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (the "WTO Agreement") and the legal arrangements for the creation, application, surveillance and enforcement of rules under the WTO Agreement. It assesses the extent to which these features represent a transfer of sovereignty in the trade sphere from the state to the supranational level.; This thesis argues that the legal order of the World Trade Organization (the "WTO") formally embodies a degree of legalism that is unprecedented in international law, and that the potential scope of authority for supranational rule-creation and rule-enforcement in the legal order and in the supervisory mechanisms of the WTO spearheads the international economic law "revolution". However, this high degree of formal legalism and supranationalism co-exists with, and is tempered by, pragmatic arrangements contained in the WTO Agreement itself, and the practice of Members.; The transfer of sovereignty from the Members to the WTO evident in the provisions of the Agreement concerning rule-creation through decision-making are tempered by other provisions of the Agreement and by practice. In particular, the practice of seeking consensus in most cases before submitting a matter to a formal vote tempers the curtailment of international legal autonomy inherent in the fall-back simple or qualified majority voting procedures.; While supervision under the Trade Policy Review Mechanism acknowledges the necessity for some supranational authority residing in the Organization, and encourages adherence to WTO norms, practice reveals that its quasi-legalistic function is secondary to its primary role of increasing transparency of Members' trade policies.; It is in the realm of supervision through dispute settlement that the international economic law "revolution" is most apparent and that the highest degree of supranational legal authority resides in the Organization. The dispute settlement system serves to apply and enforce the legal obligations in the WTO Agreement through binding international adjudication. It also plays a vital informal rule-creation function that will grow in significance due to the difficulties associated with other forms of rule-creation under the Agreement.