Legalization, contractual incompleteness and the WTO

The project strives to offer a more systematic account of the factors that contribute to a gradual closing of the gaps through the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) process. What factors explain a prima facie observed unevenness and bias throughout the process of addressing incomplete contracts? We propose to review evidence from the WTO caseload to focus more on which issues are litigated over, in what ways the WTO rules are being “completed,” and in what ways panellists and the Appellate Body have shied away from offering opinions that might end up “completing” more elements of the contract so as to pre-empt accusations of judicial activism. The project presents empirical evidence as to how legalization affects WTO Members in notably different ways.