Escaping the Illegitimacy Net

Abstract

This chapter engages in an in-depth, legal-empirical analysis of the landmark US-Shrimp dispute, the first case study examined under the category of trade-and disputes. The chapter begins with a short overview of the disputed measure at issue in US-Shrimp. It then discusses the infamous panel ruling rendered in the case and the intense legitimacy challenges the ruling ignited against the backdrop of the mounting criticism levelled at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the late 1990s. On these foundations, the chapter turns to a comprehensive goal-based reading of the judicial endeavours carried out by the Appellate Body in US-Shrimp along the procedural, substantive, and rhetorical dimensions while tracing the goal shifts and trade-offs struck in the face of the enhanced legitimacy pressures the WTO and its Dispute Settlement System (DSS) confronted in this case. The chapter concludes by tying the goal-achievement patterns identified to the broader DSS goal-based effectiveness framework developed in the book.