This page provides links to the complete output of a unique research programme launched in 2001 devoted to systematic economic-cum-legal analyses of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement determinations. The annual volumes describe and constructively criticize all decisions rendered by WTO Panels and the Appellate Body, except for a few disputes that were decided on purely technical grounds.
Each report discusses a different WTO dispute, and is written jointly by an economist and a lawyer, both leading experts in their respective fields. The aim is to determine for each dispute whether the Panel’s or Appellate Body’s decision seems justifiable and desirable from an economic and a legal point of view; and, if not, to what extent the problem lies in the reasoning of Panels or the Appellate Body when interpreting the wording of the relevant WTO agreements or specific commitments made by WTO Members.
Click on the buttons below to access the WTO Case Law Reports of that year.
"The WTO case law project with Cambridge Press is an extraordinary interdisciplinary collaboration. For over a decade, it has brought together distinguished lawyers and economists to provide a thorough analysis of the key cases and issues in the WTO dispute system. It is a unique and valuable resource for practitioners, policymakers and academics in law, economics and political science." - Alan O. Sykes, Stanford Law School
The first nine volumes were sponsored by Jan Wallander och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse, Stockholm, and the American Law Institute (ALI). They were written in the context of the ALI project Legal and Economic Principles of World Trade Law. Since 2014 the project has been sponsored by the Global Governance Programme of the European University Institute in Florence.
The most recent volumes have all been published as special issues in the World Trade Review (WTR). The first three volumes were published as books by Cambridge University Press, but have since been digitized and added to the WTR archive in order to increase their accessibility.
Henrik Horn, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm, and Bruegel, Brussels, and Petros C. Mavroidis of the Columbia Law School and the University of Neuchatel conceived of the project and led it for its first eight years. Since 2011, Chad P. Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has succeeded Henrik Horn as co-leader of the project with Mavroidis.
"The new improved fully digitized WTR makes research much easier and allows for more interesting searches - thanks WTR!" - Gary Horlick, International Trade lawyer, Washington, DC