This dissertation evaluates the applicability and effectiveness of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a settlement mechanism for addressing the South China Sea (SCS) dispute, the most complex and challenging ocean-related regional conflict in East Asia. This dissertation answers these broad questions: Does UNCLOS create a constitution for the ocean? Is UNCLOS successful in preventing or managing conflicts pertaining to marine resources? Hoes does the SCS dispute settlement bridge the gap of International Relations (IR) and International Law (IL)? Since 1980s, the regime concept came to be used as one vehicle to cross the disciplinary divide between IL and IR. This dissertation seeks to foster dialogue between political scientists and international lawyers by viewing UNCLOS as an international regime and exploring its internal coherence and its external relationship with other international regimes and institutions in this region. I argue that there can be little doubt about the centrality of UNCLOS in the legal framework for ocean management, albeit it may be perceived to have certain shortcomings. The most pervasive threats to the SCS stability and obstacles to solve the dispute are caused by the lack of political will to implement the dispute settlement mechanism of UNCLOS. This paper proposes a pragmatic settlement regime of five dimensions to solve the SCS dispute and accelerate ocean governance in this region.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine if there is a problem with compliance in the World Trade Organization, to investigate the validity of the managerial and the political economy approaches to compliance and to analyze reform proposals that tackle the issue of compliance, pursuing improvement of the system.</p><p>Drawing on the scenario of increasing legalization and cooperation in trade, the first question is examined by way of interviewing trade experts and officials as well as analyzing case studies that are pertinent to the research at hand. The second question – if management is preferred to enforcement as to induce compliance – is answered by analyzing official WTO Dispute Settlement reports, interviews, case reviews and articles on retaliation and compliance written by different authors. The third question is answered as a reflection of the findings of the first two questions.</p><p>Analysis on the managerial theory of compliance examine whether enforcement plays a minor role in inducing compliance in the WTO, if there is a propensity to comply amongst states and if noncompliance is inadvertent rather than a result of calculation of interests. In the other hand, tests conducted on the enforcement approach to compliance investigate the importance of retaliation in WTO Dispute Settlement, the necessity of an enforcement tool and the claim that noncompliance is a political decision.</p><p>Tests conducted suggest that the enforcement school of compliance is correct when stating that noncompliance is a political decision, resulted from careful calculation of interests. The research indicates that the WTO Dispute Settlement presents a dual facet of compliance, in which the enforcement tool is responsible for allowing the managerial effects to take place. In this regard, the enforcement tool alone is seen as inappropriate, especially if economic asymmetries are present. An approach that accommodates both enforcement and managerial aspects is prescribed.</p><p>The research has indicated that successful reform proposals should aim at increasing the credibility of the threat of retaliation as to follow the diagnosis verified by the tests conducted.</p>

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International environmental law is one of the most dynamic fields of public international law, and has rapidly acquired great breadth and sophistication. Yet the rate of global environmental decline has also increased and is accelerating. Halting and reversing this process is a challenge of effective governance, requiring institutions that can ensure that the now impressive body of environmental norms is faithfully implemented. This thesis explores whether and to what extent international courts and tribunals can play a useful role in international environmental regimes. Consideration is given to the threefold function of adjudication in resolving environmental disputes, in promoting compliance with environmental standards, and in developing environmental rules. The thesis is divided into three Parts. The first Part examines the spectrum of adjudicative bodies that have been involved in the resolution of environmental disputes, situates these within the evolution of institutions for compliance control, and offers a reassessment of their relevance in contemporary environmental governance. The second Part critically assesses the contribution that arbitral awards and judicial decisions have made to the development of norms and principles of environmental law, examining case law relating to transboundary pollution, shared freshwater resources and marine environmental protection. In the third Part of the thesis consideration is given to three looming challenges for international environmental litigation: accommodating greater levels of public participation in adjudicative processes, resolving practical problems stemming from the interaction among multiple jurisdictions, and ensuring that specialised courts and tribunals do not apply environmental norms in a parochial manner that privileges the policy objectives of issue-specific regimes.

L’étude du sort des exceptions environnementales et sanitaires à l’OMC permet de mettre en lumière l’équilibre qu’assurent les organes de règlement des différends entre les valeurs commerciales et non-commerciales. Ces exceptions sont pourtant vouées à une ineffectivité systémique au sein du droit de l’OMC. Les organes de règlement des différends fonctionnent comme des régulateurs exclusivement portés par et pour les intérêts commerciaux. En refusant d’infléchir les principes du libre-échange au nom des exceptions inscrites dans les textes, ils appliquent un droit rigide, vecteur d’insécurité environnementale, sanitaire et alimentaire. Une première approche linéaire de la jurisprudence révèle que les organes de règlement des différends cultivent l’apparence d’une régulation équilibrée dans ces domaines. Cet équilibre de façade est néanmoins contredit par une recherche approfondie sur le véritable sort réservé aux exceptions environnementales et sanitaires. La présente étude démontre que les organes de règlement des différends ont en réalité interprété ces exceptions de manière tellement restrictive qu’elles en sont devenues ineffectives. Une seconde approche, plus transversale, révèle que la rigidité du multilatéralisme commercial est ancrée jusque dans les mécanismes juridiques et techniques du droit de l’OMC. Ainsi en va-t-il du droit de la preuve et de la reconnaissance des normes externes au droit de l’OMC qui neutralisent les exceptions environnementales et sanitaires. Pourtant, ces verrous actuels représentent les clefs potentielles de demain, à même de relever les défis contemporains. / The use of the environmental and sanitary exceptions’ study highlights the balance between commercial and non-commercial values provided by the WTO’s dispute settlement organs. Yet, these exceptions turn out to be mere decoys, since they are doomed to ineffectiveness in the WTO’s law. The dispute settlement organs appear to be exclusively motivated by and for commercial interests. By refusing to inflect the free trade’s principles on behalf of the textual exceptions, they turn WTO in a rigid law, vector of environmental, sanitary and alimentary insecurity. A first linear perspective shows that the dispute settlement organs claim to ensure a balanced regulatory activity in these areas. Nevertheless, a deeper study of what happens to the environmental and sanitary exceptions contradicts this apparent balance. As a matter of fact, the dispute settlement organs have adopted such a restrictiv interpretation of these exceptions, that they have become ineffective. A second cross perspective shows that the rigidity of the comercial multilateralism is deeply rooted into the technical juridical mechanisms of the dispute settlement. Such is the case of the rules on proof and the recognition of external norms: these locks in the present could be keys in the future that would enable the WTO’s law to meet the contemporary challenges.

Yes

International conventions signifies international trade, which in itself would be ineffective if there were no dispute settlement mechanisms. This essay intends to examine how dispute settlement mechanisms between states have developed over the years and a large emphasis is placed on the World Trade Organizations (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body since it’s had great significance for the efficiency of international law. In order to show the need for dispute settlement mechanisms, a background to the conventions that have called for the development of the DSB is in order. This essay focuses on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and the agreement that currently regulate intellectual property rights, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), but also its connection to the DSB. The current negotiations between the EU and the USA for a free trade agreement, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is also mentioned since it intends to serve as a global model once settled. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the emergence of the TRIPS agreement, and its relation to the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO.

Resume This thesis aims to evaluate the WTO dispute settlement system that deals with disputes arising between WTO members. It focuses on the final stage of this process, i.e. the compliance process and the judgement enforcement process. The main objective is to answer the question whether the methods of judgement enforcement are effective and successful and assess any shortcomings and offer possible solutions to overcome these shortcomings. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. In the opening passage the role of World Trade Organization is introduced as well as the need for a dispute resolution system and the main principles governing the system. Various WTO bodies involved in the decision-making process are also described in detail. The following three chapters deal with the dispute resolution process and procedure rules provided under the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The thesis explores all of the procedural stages of the dispute settlement and also all relevant procedural steps undertaken by the participants. These are not limited to the complainant and to the respondent but also encompass third parties and WTO bodies. The fourth and the fifth chapter of this thesis are dedicated to the compliance process and the judgement enforcement process either by means of compensation or suspension...

The object of this work is first to describe evolution of the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement system, which originates from the dispute settlement system under the international agreement GATT 47. Originally it was the diplomatic system without explicit legal regulation, which changed into developed system based on legal regulation of the World Trade Organisation. Next part of this work consists of the analyse of current system regulated by the Dispute Settlement Understanding. The obligatory consultations remain a part of this system. If the agreement is not reached during the consultations, the two-stage proceeding by the panel of experts and by the Appellate Body takes part. The final part of the proceeding is implementation of the decision. Currently the review of the system is in process and many discussions on this issue takes place under WTO, so far with no conclusion. The last part of this work focuses on Banana case III.

Le droit antisubvention est construit par une combinaison des éléments de l'Accord SMC et des solutions du droit interne. Il se trouve au milieu de multiples tensions: l'obligation de conformité à l'égard des accords OMC v. l'autonomie du droit interne, l'équilibre institutionnel interne v. la prévisibilité du droit. La méthode de coordination multilatérale est dans un dilemme: la diffusion de ces tensions risque de laisser trop de marge de manoeuvre au pouvoir exécutif, tandis que trop d'ingérence créera une instabilité systémique. Dans son état actuel, en droit de l'Union européen comme en droit chinois, le droit antisubvention souffre encore d'incohérence entre sa mission et ses moyens: l'effectivité des règles de droit en face des faits économiques complexes reste un défi à relever. Pour la coordination multilatérale du droit antisubvention, l'arrivée de la Chine est à la fois un test de sa crédibilité et une opportunité. L'agressivité de la Chine réveillera éventuellement un besoin et un consensus pour un meilleur encadrement juridique du droit antisubvention. / The antisubsidy law created by dispositions of WTO rules and internal solutions, is situated in the center of multiple normative conflicts: firstly between obligation of compliance and the autonomy of internal legal order; and secondly between the need of institutional balance and the predictability of rules. The method of multilateral coordination is facing a dilemma, the diffusion of those tensions will give the executing authority too much leeway, but intervention will create systematical difficulties. As it is, both in European Union Law and in Chinese Law, the antisubsidy law suffers an incoherence between its mission and its capacity in terms of the effectiveness of its rules facing complexes economic realities. The arrival of China, is both a test and an oppotunity to the multilateral legal coordination on the use of countervailing duty. The aggressive use of the trade defense arm such as countervailing duty, could eventually awake a nee d and a consensus of better legal framework of the antisubsidy law.