This thesis intends to provide an argument in favour of private participation in the dispute
settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an area of the world trading system
most visible to but also most removed from the influence of private actors. Private participation
is understood as the direct and formal involvement of non-governmental actors in dispute
resolution. It will distinguish between passive and active participation, the former addressing the
flow of information from the WTO to civil society (understood as the community of all Member
societies affected by the world trading system), while the later is concerned with issues of access
and standing.
As first step, I will develop an analytical framework for international dispute settlement systems
based on the three elements of actors, material scope and procedures, as well as the underlying
theoretical conceptions for each element. After having given an overview of the relevant features
of the world trading system and its dispute resolutions mechanisms as set forth in the
Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) of the
WTO, I continue by subsuming the DSU under the analytical framework.
Based on the position of the DSU within the analytical framework, I will submit an argument in
favour of private participation, drawing particularly from the international relations theory of
liberalism. Parting from realist-institutionalist assumptions predominant in public international
law, liberalism places the individual at the center of international and WTO law, opening the
latter for new categories of international actors. Finally, taking into account the liberal reliance on individual rights and democratic participation,
I will suggest models to implement private participation in WTO dispute settlement. My aim is
to promote meaningful involvement of private actors whose interests and objectives are affected
by the world trading system, with varying procedural roles reflecting their relation to the WTO's
trade regime, ranging form passive participation, to party status, to amici curiae.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10504 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Ullrich, Dierk |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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