This study uses quantitative analyses of the complete history of rulings made by the Panels and the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism in order to assess the robustness of theories regarding the decision-making of these institutions, as well as to explore the potential for such studies of the WTO at this early stage of its development. Regression analy...

Despite debuting to little fanfare under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), dispute settlement under the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been called the “backbone of the multilateral trading system.” Indeed, whereas GATT dispute settlement could scarcely have seemed more flawed, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is widely touted for boosting confidence in an in...

This article aims to examine the potential health effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership (TTIP). Our review indicates that, although proponents of the TTIP claim that the treaty will produce benefits to health-enhancing determinants such as economic growth and employment, evidence shows that previous trade liberalization policies are associated with increasing economic in...

We focus on investor-state dispute settlement provisions contained in various, though far from all, bilateral investment treaties as a possible determinant of BIT-related effects on bilateral FDI flows. Our estimation results prove to be sensitive to the specification of these provisions as well as the inclusion of transition countries in the sample. Stricter dispute settlement provisions do no...

Over the last couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness in academic and policymaking circles regarding the importance of institutions for economic development. Institutions constitute the rules of the game in a society or, more precisely, the restrictions designed by members of a society to influence human interaction. Any transformation affecting these rules may clearly have a dire...

This Article describes briefly the way in which the system now operates and the major complaints that have been lodged against it. DISPUTE SETTLEMENT IN GATT