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Marc Benitah

TOWARDS A NEW APPELLATE BODY TAKING THE FORM OF A REAL STANDING TRIBUNAL

With regard to the rigidity of the old appellate Body to overturn its own jurisprudence, I think an "INSTITUTONAL" (instead of cultural) angle of analysis is the most promising path to understand this rigidity. The old Appellate Body was NOT a standing tribunal as for example the ICJ.

MPIA Arbitration: What will happen to the present AB jurisprudence?

There is a deafening silence in the MPIA documents published so far about the future status of current AB jurisprudence before the MPIA arbitrators. Since, after all, the MPIA arbitrators will function as an arbitral tribunal, it is essential to consider the role of arbitral jurisprudence in International Investment Law.

DO APPELLATE BODY MEMBERS HAVE BIASES WHEN CHOOSING A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS TO CLARIFY UNDEFINED RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS?

The state of Washington has sworn in its first Native American Supreme Court justice, Raquel Montoya-Lewis. At a press conference announcing her appointment, a reporter asked Montoya-Lewis, “What do you see as the biggest problem with implicit bias in the courts right now?” She replied: The biggest hurdle is getting

Does the present paralysis of the AB mean that the WTO is dead? No, and this is why.

By an odd coincidence, it seems that we have actually returned to the situation that prevailed in the previous GATT 1947 system. Recall that this system was characterized by a strange feature that allowed a veto by the losing party as soon as it communicated that it wanted to explore

IS THE UNITED STATES ACCUSING THE APPELLATE BODY OF "JUDICIAL ACTIVISM" WITHOUT ACTUALLY USING NOR DEFINING THIS EXPRESSION?

As underlined by Simon Lester in a previous post, the United States keeps raising the following question: how have we come to this point where the Appellate Body, a body established by Members to serve the Members, is disregarding the clear rules that were set by those same Members. The

New available EBOOK VERSION of my recent book about the WTO law of subsidies

Dear Blog Colleagues, Allow me to inform you that a new eBook version of my recent book ( The WTO law of subsidies: A comprehensive approach, Kluwer Law International, June 2019) is now available at Amazon.com. Until now, only a print version was available and a commentator on this blog

Will the WTO Negotiations on Fisheries Subsidies adopt a "Caps-Based Approach" Inspired by the National Schedules in the Agreement on Agriculture?

At the 11th Ministerial Conference held in Buenos Aires last December 2017, members agreed to continue to engage constructively in fisheries subsidies negotiations with a view to adopting an agreement by the next 2020 Ministerial Conference . The aim is to agree on disciplines that prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies

CHINA's "INDUSTRIAL SUBSIDIES": IS THE WTO's AB JURISPRUDENCE ABOUT THE DEFINITION OF A "PUBLIC BODY" AN INSTANCE OF THE WORST KIND OF JUDICIAL ACTIVISM?

Technically, China's "industrial subsidies" are subsidies granted by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that do not fall under the concept of "public body" as understood by the WTO Appellate Body. Recall that a financial contribution in the sense of Article 1 of the SCM could be

The Book "The WTO Law of Subsidies: A Comprehensive Approach" is now published

Dear Blog Colleagues Allow me please to signal that my book "The WTO Law of Subsidies: A Comprehensive Approach" is now published and available at Kluwer eStore. Best Regards. Marc PRINT format: Kluwer eStore KINDLE format Amazon.com

New Book:"The WTO Law of Subsidies: A Comprehensive Approach"

Dear Blog Colleagues, I am pleased to announce the forthcoming publication (early May 2019) of my new book titled "The WTO Law of Subsidies: A Comprehensive Approach". It is published by Kluwer Law International. You can find all the necessary information about the book at the book website