What’s new in EU trade dispute settlement? Judicialization, public–private networks and the WTO legal order

Article is part of a special issue, ‘The European Union and the new trade politics’.

Abstract:

There is a recursive relationship between the judicialization of international trade relations and the development of public–private partnerships in the EU to address international trade claims. The more legalized international trading system creates stronger incentives for well-placed private actors to engage public legal processes. At the same time, to litigate effectively in the WTO system, government officials need the specific information that businesses and their legal representatives can provide. Officials therefore strive to establish better working relations with industry on trade matters. As a result, the EU's decision-making process for the investigation, litigation and settlement of trade claims has become a dynamic, ad hoc, hybrid, multi-tiered process in which private interests are deeply implicated. The process is neither purely intergovernmental nor purely private, but rather involves public–private networks operating in the shadow of international trade law. The process changes and adapts through trial and error.

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