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Precedent

25 posts

The Aircraft Report: Debating the Role of Precedent

This is from the Interim Review section of the Aircraft report: 6.26 The United States requests that the first sentence of paragraph 7.248 of the Interim Report be modified to remove any suggestion that reports of the Appellate Body are binding except with respect to resolving the particular

Panels, the AB, and the Role of Precedent

From the recent EC appeal in the Continued Zeroing (DS350) case: First, if the Panel Report is construed as finding that a panel can invoke "cogent reasons" for departing from previous Appellate Body findings on the same issue of legal interpretation (paragraphs 7.180 and 7.182 of

The Role of Precedent: What the WTO Members Think (Part 2)

A while back, I mentioned a discussion among the WTO Members, at a DSB meeting, on the role of precedent in WTO dispute settlement. This discussion was in the context of the U.S. - Stainless Steel (Mexico) dispute, where the AB made some statements that seemed to indicate a

The Role of Precedent at the WTO: What the Members Think

From the summary of the DSB meeting where the recent U.S. - Stainless Steel from Mexico case was adopted: There was a debate among members on whether or not panels were obliged to follow AB decisions. Some members argued that prior AB rulings constituted a clear line of jurisprudence

The Role of Precedent in WTO Dispute Settlement

At this point, many people are probably zoning out while trying to read all the recent "zeroing" decisions. But buried in the latest panel decision (DS322) is an interesting question regarding the role of precedent in WTO dispute settlement. Briefly, the Panel decided not to follow the approach