The current crisis engulfing the multilateral trading system has crystalized in the dispute over the (re-)appointment of the members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. While the legislative arm of the organization has never lived up to its potential, its dispute settlement arm...

This entry in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law, titled Panel: Dispute Settlement System of the World Trade Organization (WTO), comprehensively covers all aspects of dispute settlement before WTO panels, as well as panel proceedings within the overall WTO dispute...

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, an agreement under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization, prescribes rules pertaining to technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures. One of the important hallmarks of the agreement is the use of international...

International standards are central to domestic rule-making processes. While these standards-developed outside the WTO-are in and of themselves not binding, the SPS Agreement gives them a quasi-binding character as WTO members must provide scientific justification should they wish to deviate...

Most party systems have seen a considerable rise in polarization during the past decades. We show that fiscal policies have contributed to this development. Our macro-level analysis of 166 elections since 1980 finds that austerity increases both electoral abstention and votes for non-mainstream...