WTO Law in a Fragmented, Decentralized International Legal Order: Symposium Introduction

This paper introduces a symposium issue on WTO law in a fragmented, decentralized international legal order, resulting from a conference which was held at Loyola University School of Law on February 15, 2008, and was co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law. The introduction introduces the five papers published in the issue by Padideh Ala’i, Raj Bhala, Tomer Broude, Jeffrey Dunoff, Merit Janow, and Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann. The conference assessed the place of WTO law in a fragmented, decentralized legal order, examining on the one hand its relation to other international law, and on the other its relation to national law. That is, the papers examine WTO law in its vertical and its horizontal dimensions in terms of the allocation of authority, legitimacy and impact. The conference was organized into four sessions, complemented by a keynote address from Merit Janow on her reflections as a member of the WTO Appellate Body. Collectively, the articles in this issue demonstrate how the study of the interaction between the WTO, other international legal regimes and domestic legal orders will comprise a key part of the future of the discipline.