Introduction

I think it is fair to say that the WTO is the most exciting development in international law for the last twenty years and I think its most distinctive feature is the dispute settlement body of the WTO . Of course the WTO's predecessor, the GATT, did have its dispute settlement system but it had a fundamental defect namely the veto power of a losing state which could veto at any point at the end of the procedure a ruling which was unfavourable to it. I think that had a subtly constraining effect on the cases brought to the GATT panels namely that people did not bring cases when ...