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Heavy Fuel: T rade and Environment in the GATT / WTO Case Law
Author(s) -
Cosbey Aaron,
Mavroidis Petros C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
review of european, comparative and international environmental law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2050-0394
pISSN - 2050-0386
DOI - 10.1111/reel.12089
Subject(s) - mistake , argument (complex analysis) , order (exchange) , position (finance) , international trade , international trade law , political science , economics , law , law and economics , biochemistry , chemistry , finance
This article discusses the evolution of case law regarding the treatment of cases that the authors qualify as ‘trade and environment’ in the case law of the G eneral A greement on T ariffs and T rade ( GATT ) and the W orld T rade O rganization ( WTO ). The main argument is that, as in many domestic jurisdictions, GATT / WTO courts moved from an original ‘hostile’ position towards environmental protection that incidentally affected trade flows to a more nuanced, even friendly attitude towards those measures that were legitimately ‘green’. WTO courts, like other courts before them, saw the signs of times. They did not have to ‘make’ law, though, in order to change their attitude towards environmental concerns. They only had to correct a clear mistake they committed in the late 1980s in the notorious tuna‐dolphin dispute, and start interpreting the GATT / WTO as it was meant to be by its framers: societal preferences, to the extent they are non‐discriminatory, trump obligations to liberalize trade.