This thesis deals with the dispute settlement in international economic law. Specifically, it focuses on dispute settlement mechanism within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The aim of the thesis is to examine specific features and evolution of this mechanism and to look at its functioning through case analysis. As an object of the case analysis I chose to investigate cases which have been filed by or against People's Republic of China (China) since its accession in 2001. The accession of China to the WTO was entailed with some controversy and China is well known as a state which is rather not in favor of international adjudication. Therefore, I would like to discuss why this system is more appealing to China and which consequences it might have. The thesis is divided into four main parts which are further divided into chapters. The first part of the thesis explores evolution of the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO from its predecessor GATT 1947 and outlines main features of the dispute settlement proceedings. The second and the third parts of the thesis shift focus on China and provide a basis for the case analysis in the fourth part. The second part deals with specific circumstances of the accession of China to the WTO, while the third part looks at historical and cultural...

The diploma thesis contains a detailed analysis of a trade dispute DS 291 in WTO between the United States of America and the European Union, from its causes to the proceeding and final solution.

The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) established under the World Trade Organisation, is one of the most notable achievements of the multilateral trading system. African countries need to engage more in this emerging system to defend their trade and economic interests, especially in this time of increasing integration in the world trading system. It is submitted that the weak participation of African countries in the DSU can have negative economic and trade implications on Africa, as it minimises the influence these countries could exert on the development of the DSU legal system at this stage of particular importance to the evolution of international trade law in addition to its direct economic and trade costs. All complaints about impediments in the DSU cannot be rightly claimed to be the core reasons for weak African participation in the system, as the system still stand out as a rule-based with equal treatment to Developed and Developing countries. Additionally, the low participation of African countries cannot be justified by the degree of development basis only, as other developing counties have been very successful in this regard and some African countries managed to make use of the system in a very positive way. Moreover, this dissertation states that the effect of other internal constraints that are reported to hinder African participation, such as lack of sufficient financial resources, limited technical expertise and political factors, could be minimised through joint African cooperation, and by developing national strategies to deal with DSU. Egypt is a good example in this regard; despite its limited financial and technical expertise, it managed to gain accumulated experience through its various forms of engaging in the DSU, and consequently managed to defend its trade and economic interests. The establishment of a national organisational framework to deal with the DSU assisted in the preparation of national expertise that is gaining increasing experience. Egypt’s incorporation of national legislations on Anti-Dumping, Investment Protection, Intellectual Property Rights and other WTO agreements definitely supports the Egyptian position in the DSU. African countries are called to work within the African Union and on the national levels to make the best use of the system to serve their developmental goals. National strategies should be formulated regarding WTO dispute settlement engagement. These should include sound legislations and clear rules of engagement between different departments and the private sector to enable African countries to overcome the major constraints currently limiting their participation. African countries can depend partially on the support system offered by organisations like ACWL, UNCTAD and pro bone assistance from international law firms and NGO’s to overcome the financial and lack of experience constraints. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Public Law / unrestricted

STASINKOVÁ, Sandra. (2016). Cyprus Dispute Settlement after the EU accession: Renewed Negotiations and Future Development. Master thesis, Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies. 65 p. Supervisor: JUDr. PhDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyse the ongoing conflict in Cyprus, which became internal for the European Union in 2004, and consequently asses the role of the European Union in the conflict resolution, which is being evaluated according to the principles of mediation. The thesis is divided into four parts. Firtsly, we outline the escalation and the background of the conflict in Cyprus, which have led to the Turkish intervention and consequent division of the island. Secondly, we analyse the period of the European Union accession as a milestone in the development of the conflict. Following the EU accession, we deal with the overall role of the European Union in the conflict resolution and the Union's credibility in conflict managment in general in the third part of this thesis. Lastly, the fourth chapter focuses on the development of the conflict and character of the negotiations after Cyprus became the full member of the European Union. It also provides possible results from current negotiations and possible ways...

Cette étude montre comment la création d’un Mécanisme de règlement des différends, dont la juridiction est obligatoire pour régler les litiges entre les Membres de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC), participe au développement du droit international, tant sur le plan normatif qu’institutionnel. Les organes du Mécanisme jouent un rôle crucial dans la centralisation de l’application du droit international des échanges du fait de leur place au sein de la structure de l’OMC, et en raison des compétences juridictionnelles qu’ils exercent. Toutefois, l’action unilatérale des Membres de l’Organisation reste déterminante pour le bon fonctionnement de ce Mécanisme. La saisine de l’Organe de règlement des différends (ORD) sur requête unilatérale, de même que la mise en oeuvre de contre-mesures en cas d’inexécution des décisions de l’ORD, en sont les meilleures preuves. En outre, les rapports des groupes spéciaux (GS) et de l’Organe d’appel (OA) incorporés à ces décisions constituent un droit dérivé jurisprudentiel d’une importance toujours croissante. Enfin, le Mécanisme est au service d’une institution internationale qui n’est pas close sur elle-même. En effet, les organes du Mécanisme interprètent les traités de l’OMC conformément aux règles du droit international coutumier. Et, la production juridique de ces organes est un facteur de modification des normes des ordres juridiques des Membres de l’Organisation, ainsi que des Accords commerciaux régionaux (ACR) auxquels les Membres peuvent être parties. / Whatever the future of the WTO may be, the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) as an intergovernmental dispute settlement system is a key institution for the evolution of International Law. Firstly, its compulsory jurisdiction contributes to the structural development of the international legal system by ensuring the centralization of the WTO Law application and a multilateral control on the Member States behaviours. Yet, factors of the DSM success, such as the panel establishment by a Member unilateral request, or such as the complainant Member countermeasures used to make a defender Member comply with the recommendations and rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body(DSB), underline the fact that States remain the major actors of the International legal system.Secondly, the case-law of the DSM (more than 450 cases) is considerable compared to any othercase-law of an inter-governmental litigation settlement organ. At last, the panels and the AppelateBody (AB) apply in their reports the customary international rules to interpret WTO treaties and thus the Understanding on Rules and Procedures governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU).Accordingly, the DSB decisions shall have a great impact on the whole normative development of the international legal system. And eventually, DSB decisions may affect the undergoing change ofthe Members domestic legal systems, and the Regional Trade Agreements (RTA).

Le droit de la propriété intellectuelle a connu d’importants développements dans le sillage de la révolution technologique et du phénomène de la globalisation. Le droit de marque confère un monopole au profit de son titulaire, qui lui permet d’établir des liens avec les consommateurs, à travers les produits et les services qui sont revêtus du signe protégé : des liens juridiques et des liens commerciaux par l’effet de la communication, de la publicité, de la transmission de l’image de l’entreprise que celui-ci véhicule. Toutefois, les prérogatives attachées au droit de marque rencontrent des limites inhérentes à tout monopole, à savoir le respect de l’intérêt général, fil un conducteur qui gouverne la procédure d’enregistrement de la marque, au-delà, son maintien en vigueur et la détermination des frontières qui séparent ce qui est permis de ce qui est interdit. S’agissant de s’interroger sur les procédures de règlement des litiges, à l’aune de leur comparaison, entre trois systèmes de cultures juridiques très différentes, à savoir la France « berceau » du droit continental et, du droit administratif d’une part, et, d’autre part, deux entités de tradition juridique divergente - la Chine continentale et Taïwan - , on peut relever un renforcement du pouvoir administratif et en même temps, un mouvement d’harmonisation des règles du contentieux. Le renforcement du pouvoir administratif se manifeste à travers l’extension des compétences en matière de droits de propriété intellectuelle. Ainsi, en Chine continentale, les autorités administratives locales peuvent appliquer les lois administratives pour régler avec célérité les litiges de propriété intellectuelle. En France, le renforcement du pouvoir administratif s’exprime avec la transposition future de la directive de 2015 sur l’harmonisation du droit des marques dans l’Union européenne, qui attribue compétence à l’INPI en matière de déchéance et de nullité des marques, au premier degré. L’harmonisation du droit des marques se révèle avec le renforcement du mécanisme de la retenue en douane en Chine continentale et à Taïwan et, par ailleurs, avec l’instauration de juridictions spécialisées, le législateur taïwanais étant le premier entre les trois systèmes juridiques, à créer une Cour en propriété intellectuelle en 2007. / There continues to be significant developments in intellectual property law in the wake of the technological revolution and the globalization phenomenon. This thesis seeks to analyze procedures for settling disputes by comparing three decidedly different judicial systems: France (the « cradle » of Civil law legal system) on the one hand, contrasted with two entities of diverging judicial traditions, namely Mainland China and Taiwan. We will take up two trends in particular: a strengthening of administrative power and at the same time a movement toward harmonizing settlement procedures.The strengthening of administrative power is evidenced by its “specialization” and extension of its competence in the area of intellectual property rights. Thus, in Mainland China local administrative authorities can enforce administrative laws to expediently deal with intellectual property disputes. In France, on the other hand, the growth of administrative power can be seen in the transposing of the 2015 future directive regarding the harmonization of trademarks within the European Union, which attributed competence to the INPI for the first degree examination in the revocation and invalidity procedures.The harmonization of trademarks is also visible in the introduction of a reinforced “customs seizure” mechanism in Mainland China and Taiwan. Furthermore, with the establishment of specialized courts, the Taiwanese legislature became the first of the three justice systems to create an intellectual property court in 2007.

摘 要 「世界貿易組織」（World Trade Organization，以下簡稱WTO）爭端解決下之貿易制裁，對於確保其任務之達成，扮演著十分重要的角色。惟自WTO成立後至今的數年間，所出現之「爭端解決機構」（The Dispute Settlement Body）授權貿易制裁之實例，透露了本機制之引發之問題，例如除了被制裁國強力反彈外，採取制裁措施之國自身也倍嚐其苦。針對上述問題，不論是學界或WTO會員國均有一些檢討改革的方案。 上述改革方案包括倡議以其他手段完全取代現行「爭端解決程序與規則瞭解書」（Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes，以下簡稱DSU）之貿易制裁者，經過本文之分析，發現此等手段縱然取代DSU之貿易制裁，仍無法解決問題，蓋彼等或不具可行性、或有強制執行之困難。 鑑於貿易制裁對WTO規範遵循之確保，目前無可取代，故本文肯定其繼續存在之必要，同時強調貿易制裁之法制化並無礙WTO協定整體架構之邏輯一貫性。此外，法制化的結果，不但可確保貿易制裁受到監督，降低濫用的空間，更可藉由內建之定期檢討與修正，促使授權貿易制裁得以持續獲得改善，將負面影響降到最低。 / The authorization of trade sanction, which secures the objectives of the World Trade Organization (hereinafter the “WTO”) to be achieved, plays a very important role in WTO dispute settlement mechanism. However, since the establishment of the WTO, the DSB authorization of trade sanctions in some cases has revealed some problems. In some instances, the exercise of the trade sanctions triggers counter-measures of the respondent member, while in others, the complaint member also suffers for the trade sanction it imposes as authorized. In response to the aforementioned problems, commentators as well as WTO members have proposed some ideas of reform. The reform proposals include replacing the WTO trade sanctions with alternative measures. Nevertheless, after careful analyses of these proposals for alternatives, it is found in this thesis that the replacement of the WTO trade sanctions cannot resolve the aforementioned problems, in the sense that those alternatives suggested are not feasible or lack of ways to enforce them. In light of the fact that currently no feasible alternative can have the function as trade sanction has in assuring the compliance of the WTO rules, this thesis argues that it needs to be preserved. Besides, this thesis believes that it does not cause any conflict in the current WTO legal framework. To preserve it under the WTO framework, the abuse can be avoided through the surveillance of the DSB. Moreover, the built-in review mechanism, which will continue reform trade sanction measures, can minimize their negative effects.

Dispute Settlement in the WTO Veronika Honzíková Abstract The WTO dispute settlement represents a significant improvement compared to the dispute settlement system under GATT 1947, but is still considered as his successor. The mechanism under GATT 1947 had many weaknesses which resulted to the need of reform. The procedure under GATT 1947 was not contradictory and all members of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) were entitled to use the veto right when adopting the reports. The contracting parties were conscious of such weaknesses and they have agreed on a new dispute settlement system during the Uruguay round. The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) is part of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. The new system remains inter-state mechanism and as a consequence, available only to the Member States, excluding individuals and business operators. The dispute settlement under WTO has become compulsory while leaving each member the choice between this standard procedure and other dispute modes, such as Good Offices, Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The dispute settlement system has been unified and has become more judicial. It excludes national jurisdictions and means strengthening the multilateralism. The dispute settlement is administrated by the Dispute Settlement Body,...

O presente trabalho trata da legitimidade da técnica interpretativa do Órgão de Apelação do sistema de solução de controvérsias da Organização Mundial do Comércio. A indagação que realizamos durante o trabalho é se o método interpretativo utilizado pelo Órgão de Apelação, em si, é legítimo e se, dadas as características específicas dos acordos da OMC, esse método reforça a própria legitimidade do sistema multilateral do comércio. Para tanto, definimos no primeiro capítulo o conceito de legitimidade do sistema multilateral de comércio no qual figuram, como elementos de fundamental relevância, as medidas de construção de confiança entre os Membros da OMC e a sua expectativa de que o sistema de solução de controvérsias da OMC traga segurança e previsibilidade às regras negociadas por consenso durante a Rodada Uruguai. Argumentamos que a primazia dada à letra dos acordos é um dos elementos fundamentais da segurança e da previsibilidade buscada pelos Membros da OMC. Tratamos da legitimidade da técnica interpretativa do Órgão de Apelação da OMC comparando-a com outras técnicas utilizadas por outras cortes internacionais. Analisamos quais seriam os efeitos da aplicação de outros métodos interpretativos no sistema multilateral de comércio, como por exemplo, a interpretação teleológica. Para melhor compreender os fundamentos da técnica interpretativa do Órgão de Apelação, interessou-nos examinar os métodos de interpretação de outros sistemas de direito contemporâneo, notadamente, o Common Law e o Civil Law, e verificar se procede a afirmação de parte da doutrina especializada de que há uma influência predominante do Common Law no sistema de solução de controvérsias da OMC, que supostamente colocaria em risco a legitimidade das decisões do Órgão de Apelação. Embora tenhamos denominado o presente trabalho como a técnica interpretativa do Órgão de Apelação, verificamos que essa técnica não é mecânica. Não supomos ser suficiente que o Órgão de Apelação simplesmente siga matematicamente os critérios da Convenção de Viena sobre Direito dos Tratados para alcançar o resultado e a solução para o caso concreto. Verificamos que a interpretação de um tratado vai além da técnica, envolve um raciocínio e, em última análise, uma escolha. Estudamos essa técnica/arte de raciocínio no presente trabalho. Analisamos como os elementos exteriores à técnica mecânica fazem parte da interpretação, como, por exemplo, o confronto de juízes de nacionalidades distintas e o peso da denominada cultura jurídica na prática interpretativa, além do perfil cultural de parte dos membros do Órgão de Apelação. / This work deals with the legitimacy of the interpretive technique of the World Trade Organizations dispute settlement systems Appellate Body. We ask whether the interpretive method used by the Appellate Body is, in itself, legitimate, and whether, given the specific characteristics of the system, this method reinforces the legitimacy of the multilateral trade system itself. To this end, in the introductory chapter we define the concept of the legitimacy of the multilateral trade system, in which elements of fundamental importance include the measures to build confidence among the World Trade Organization members and their expectation that the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system brings predictability to the rules negotiated by consensus during the Uruguay Round. We argue that the primacy given to the letter of the agreements is one of the fundamental elements of security and predictability sought by WTO members. We deal with the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization Appellate Bodys interpretive technique, comparing it to other techniques used by other international courts. We analyze what the effects of the application of other interpretive methods, such as, for example, teleological interpretation, would be in the multilateral trade system. To better understand the fundamentals of the Appellate Bodys interpretive technique, we examine the interpretive methods of other contemporary legal systems, especially of the common law and the civil law systems, to determine whether the claim made in the specialized legal literature that there is a predominant influence of the common law in the WTO dispute settlement system, which is allegedly putting the legitimacy of the Appellate Bodys decisions at risk, is correct. Although we have given this work the name the interpretive technique of the Appellate Body, we suggest this technique is not mechanical. We do not suppose that it is sufficient for the Appellate Body to simply mechanically follow the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties criteria to reach the result and the resolution of a concrete case. We have found that the interpretation of a treaty goes beyond the technique and involves reasoning and, in the final analysis, a choice. We have studied this reasoning technique/art in this work. We analyze how the elements exterior to the mechanical technique are part of the interpretation, such as, for example, the confrontation of judges with different nationalities and the weight of the so-called legal culture in the practice of interpretation, in addition to the cultural profile of the members of the Appellate Body.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.