The impact of WTO rulings in the Community legal order

Abstract:

In the Biret cases the Court of Justice was faced with its first real opportunity to address the impact of a decision of the WTO's dispute settlement body in the Community legal order. The full court has explicitly left open the possibility of legality review vis-à-vis WTO rules where a dispute settlement body decision is at issue and the implementation period has elapsed. Whichever way this matter is eventually resolved, and it can only be avoided for so long, will be of serious consequence. For the realpolitik concerns exhibited so strongly in the Portugal decision to eventually carry the day would bode badly for the credibility of the new dispute settlement system which the Community was instrumental in putting in place. Conversely, to accept the possibility of legality review in such circumstances, even if operating within tightly circumscribed confines, would bolster the dispute settlement system and signal that international obligations are taken seriously in the Community legal order.