Bulletin n. 2/2016
December 2016
INDICE
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Reto Malacrida
    Call It the ‘WTO Charter’: John Jackson and His Abiding Concern for Treaty Nomenclature and Structure
    in Journal of International Economic Law , Volume 19 Issue 2 ,  2016 ,  347-351
    As a former postgraduate student in John Jackson’s last class at the University of Michigan School of Law, I still recall how privileged we felt to learn at the feet of the academic founding father of both the field of International Trade Law and the WTO as a formally constituted international organization.1 In my tribute, I first wish to draw attention to a unique feature in John Jackson’s writings, namely his consistent use of the term ‘WTO Charter’ in lieu of the formally correct terms ‘Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization’ or ‘WTO Agreement’.2 According to the UN Treaty Section, the term ‘charter’ refers to ‘particularly formal and solemn instruments, such as the constituent treaty of an international organization’.3 The WTO Agreement plainly meets that definition. Now John Jackson did not explicitly propose that the name of the WTO Agreement be changed to ‘WTO Charter’. As is widely known, however, the WTO’s first multilateral trade round (the Doha Development Agenda) has produced scarce, albeit significant, results. Meanwhile, the ongoing ‘proliferation of preferential (non-MFN) agreements like Free Trade Agreements’4 poses a possible ‘threat’5 to the WTO’s centrality in the world trading system, certainly as a forum for trade negotiations. If, then, for the foreseeable future there may be little prospect of significant further multilateral trade liberalization and rule-making, a sensible strategy for WTO Members (‘Members’) to follow may consist in consolidating and perfecting what has already been achieved by strengthening the WTO wherever possible. Taking inspiration from John Jackson’s writings, renaming the WTO Agreement to the ‘Marrakesh Charter of the World Trade Organization (“WTO Charter”)’ could be one step in that direction. John Jackson observed that his pioneering proposal to replace the de facto GATT with a formally constituted WTO ‘may seem a mere formalism, …
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