We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
THE JUDICIAL RESOLUTION OF CONFLICTS BETWEEN TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
- Authors
Knox, John H.
- Abstract
The legal conflicts between international trade agreements and environmental laws achieved notoriety after the 1991 Tuna-Dolphin case, decided under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In stating that a U.S. environmental law was inconsistent with U.S. obligations under GATT, the Tuna Dolphin decision announced that trade agreements could conflict with domestic and multilateral environmental laws, and that those conflicts could be heard by trade tribunals biased in favor of the trade agreements. Since the early 1990s, environmentalists have proposed several reforms to resolve this conflict. Yet although governments have discussed the proposed reforms, they have not adopted them in any political agreements. This Article argues that beneath the radar of most of the environmental critics and trade analysts, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has done what governments failed to do: it has reached a comprehensive resolution of trade/environment legal conflicts that incorporates the proposed reforms. The Article looks at how the Appellate Body shaped its resolution to receive political support and the degree to which it has been successful in achieving its aim. It concludes by identifying some effects the judicial resolution may have on other aspects of the debate over trade and the environment, suggesting that one important result of the judicial resolution of trade/environment legal conflicts may be to increase attention to the more fundamental question of how best to reconcile economic integration and environmental protection.
- Subjects
UNITED States; INTERNATIONAL trade; INTERNATIONAL economic relations; TRADE regulation; TREATIES; ENVIRONMENTAL law
- Publication
Harvard Environmental Law Review, 2004, Vol 28, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0147-8257
- Publication type
Article