The World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism – Analysis and Problems

This paper provides an overview of issues and progress in research on WTO dispute settlement. It also points out the remaining gaps in the existing literature. For reasons of space, the focus is primarily on research by political scientists and legal scholars. We pay only passing attention to the burgeoning normative literature on the legal accuracy of WTO rulings and the legitimacy and accountability of WTO dispute settlement. The following (second) section describes how the DSM works, notes the key differences with the older GATT dispute mechanism, and discusses some trends in WTO dispute settlement. The third section focuses on how the nature and functioning of the DSM can be studied. In the fourth section, we look at some key findings from recent research and in the fifth section we identify some remaining research gaps. The final section links research on the DSM with ongoing debates on reforming WTO dispute settlement