The Politics of Dispute Settlement Design: Explaining Legalism in Regional Trade Pacts

Dispute settlement mechanisms in international trade vary dramatically from one agreement to another. Some mechanisms are highly legalistic, with standing tribunals that resemble national courts in their powers and procedures. Others are diplomatic, requiring only that the disputing countries make a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International organization 2000, Vol.54 (1), p.137-180
Main Author: Smith, James McCall
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Arbitration
Compliance
Conflict Resolution
Cooperation
Costs
DIPLOMACY AND DIPLOMATS
Disputes
Free trade
International agreements
International disputes
International law
International relations
International Trade
Labor unions
Legal aspects
Legalism
Liberalization
Negotiations
Pacts
Political aspects
Political integration
Political science
Politics
Regional trade
Regionalism
REGIONALISM, REGIONAL COOPERATION
Studies
Supranationalism
Trade agreements
Trade legislation
Trade relations
Treaties
Trends
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Summary:Dispute settlement mechanisms in international trade vary dramatically from one agreement to another. Some mechanisms are highly legalistic, with standing tribunals that resemble national courts in their powers and procedures. Others are diplomatic, requiring only that the disputing countries make a good-faith effort to resolve their differences through consultations. In this article I seek to account for the tremendous variation in institutional design across a set of more than sixty post-1957 regional trade pacts. In contrast to accounts that emphasize the transaction costs of collective action or the functional requirements of deep integration, I find that the level of legalism in each agreement is strongly related to the level of economic asymmetry, in interaction with the proposed depth of liberalization, among member countries.
ISSN:0020-8183
1531-5088
DOI:10.1162/002081800551145