The authority of an institution

The WTO dispute settlement system has, over the years, won both praise and criticism. A rules-based system of adjudication that is compulsory, exclusive and binding, and where WTO members’ fundamental commercial and national interests are at stake, was never assured of success. Yet, from the vantage point of today, it is clear that the WTO, without its dispute settlement system, would be considered by most observers and participants a weaker institution. And in consequence, the global trading system would operate under conditions of greater uncertainty, to the detriment of all. A rules-based system is not the same thing as a system of rules based on the rule of law. Among the attributes of this latter system is that its rules enjoy authority. The source of that authority and whether the Appellate Body enjoys such authority are the issues I consider in this chapter.