Over at EJIL:Talk!, Arman Sarvarian and Fontanelli Filippo respond to the Appellate Body reappointment controversy with some reform suggestions:
A Single-Term System?
The chair of the DSB noted that further consultations were necessary to exit the deadlock. Recourse to diplomacy reveals the structural limits of the applicable procedural rules; the immediate standoff at the Dispute Settlement Body can only be resolved by one side or the other lifting their veto. Regardless of the immediate outcome concerning Mr Chang, we suggest that the negotiators could usefully consider two systemic reforms that would help to preclude such scenarios recurring while also promoting judicial independence: 1) a switch to a single-term system (e.g. of six years’ duration) as already proposed by Brazil; and 2) an extension of the ban on nationals sitting on cases affecting their State to the Appellate Body.
Read the whole thing here.
