Thick and thin moralities and legitimacy in international adjudication – the case of the WTO

WTO adjudication faces a crisis of social legitimacy. I diagnose that crisis in terms of competing theories of interpretation, and thick and thin political moralities. WTO law‘s dominant self-image is as voluntarist-positivist treaty law, reflecting an implicit thin international political morality. Interpretation is exclusively a matter of textual analysis complemented by originalist intent. Yet text...

Panel 78, TUESDAY JUNE 26 2018 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM