Dissent and Failure to Follow Precedent in WTO Dispute Settlement

Abstract

In recent years the WTO dispute settlement system has experienced increasing instances of horizontal disagreement – in the form of dissents within panels or within divisions of the Appellate Body – and vertical disagreement – in the form of panels declining to follow previous decisions of the Appellate Body. This presentation will discuss whether each of these types of disagreement is problematic for the integrity of the dispute settlement system, or whether the system can instead benefit from such disagreement.

Biography of the Speaker

Meredith Kolsky Lewis is a Senior Lecturer of Law at the Victoria University of Wellington Law School. In 2010-11 she was a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. This year she remains at Georgetown as a Dean's Visiting Scholar while on sabbatical from Victoria.

Meredith is an Executive Vice President and founding member of the Society of International Economic Law. She is also co-founder of the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law. She is one of New Zealand’s two representatives to the International Law Association’s International Trade Law Committee; a member of the Asian WTO Research Network; and a board member of the Asian International Economic Law Network and the International Economic Law interest group of the Australia – New Zealand Society of International Law. Her publications include the co-edited book, INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW AND NATIONAL AUTONOMY (Cambridge University Press 2010); the co-authored textbook, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW (textbook co-authored with Bryan Mercurio, Leon Trakman and Bruno Zeller) (Oxford University Press 2009); and articles in numerous journals including the Journal of International Economic Law and the University of Chicago Journal of International Law.

Meredith received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and her Master of Science in Foreign Service and Juris Doctor degrees from Georgetown University. She was previously an associate with Shearman & Sterling LLP in Washington DC and Tokyo.