O TPR e o MERCOSUL: os 15 Anos do Fiador do Direito Regional

What would be the main challenges and current perspectives of the Permanent Review Tribunal fifteen years after the settlement of its offices in the Republic of Paraguay? Normative, doctrinal and practical sources are used in an attempt to comply with the reflections proposed. The paper points the centrality of institutionalized dispute settlement systems as a requirement to identify international organizations to show that MERCOSUR not only fulfills the requirement but also has an improved framework to solve disputes. Diplomacy gains centrality in the debate when the tribunal is analyzed as the possible structure for the desired integration and when identifying the positive factors that led to the choice of Asuncion to receive its offices. Finally, the paper concludes its appointments with an overview of the development of the atypical functions of the tribunal that successfully promote its expanded operation nowadays.