Trade Wars, Trade-Offs, and the International Rule of Law

This chapter sets the scene for the analysis of the operation and goal-attainment patterns of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement System (DSS) in ‘perennial’ disputes, the dispute category at the centre of Part III, which provides another instructive venue for exploring whether and how the unique challenges posed before the DSS in this class of cases shape stakeholders’ expectations from the DSS, shift the emphasis among its various goals, and stimulate trade-offs between them. After discussing the main challenges associated with perennial disputes, the chapter situates these conflicts within the broader historical and institutional context of the multilateral trading system. The chapter then challenges the common appellation of such cases as ‘wrong’ cases due to their heightened prospects of noncompliance, while pointing to the shift away from compliance taking place in such conflicts and the enhanced role the DSS comes to play at the interstice between law and politics, with a view to achieving other organizational objectives.