National Treatment and WTO Dispute Settlement: Adjudicating the Boundaries of Regulatory Autonomy

The percieved impact of WTO law on the domestic regulatory autonomy of WTO members is increasingly becoming the subject of controversy and debate. This text brings together in an integrated analytical framework how the main WTO adjudicators, i.e. the panels and the Appellate Body, have construed those rules. A critical analysis identifies the flaws or weaknesses of these quasi-judical solutions and their potential consequences for members' regulatory autonomy. In an attempt to identify a more proper balance between the WTO law and regulatory autonomy, it develops an innovative interpretation of the National Treatment obligations in GATT and GATS, drawing upon compelling arguements from legal, logic and economic theory.