| Judicial review is a legal system by which judicial organizations review executives or legislatures' acts that exercise the force of state, and correct the illegal acts so as to safeguard citizens' right. This legal system is universally adopted in modern democratic states, and of great significance in the system of WTO rules. WTO makes clear requirements on members' judicial review system: all members shall establish judicial review organs and procedures; parties involved in an administrative act shall be granted with the right for judicial remedies; the procedures of judicial review shall be objective and fair. China promised in its protocol on the accession of the people's republic of china to establish judicial review system in compliance with WTO. With China's accession to WTO, whether China's current judicial review system complies with WTO is a problem of concern both home and abroad. More important, it has come to be one of the key standards by which other WTO members judge how China's legal systems comply with WTO. As a result, it is of profound importance to study the relationship between WTO and judicial review.The relationship between WTO and judicial review involves many legal disciplines such as international economy, administrative law, and constitutional law. The thesis analyses different provisions of several WTO agreements in respect of judicial review, and studies the relationship between WTO and judicial review in aspect of subject, basis, scope, standard and protection of the right of action. The author advances to compare the differences among China's current judicial system, WTO requirements and China's relevant promises, and analyses the flaws of current judicial review system. Finally, the author makes suggestion on how to modify China's judicial review system. The thesis consists of 36,000 words in 3 sections.Based on the analysis on WTO agreements' stipulation in respect of judicial review, the first section studies the special position of judicial review in the system of WTO rules, and the reason why WTO and WTO members attach great importance to judicial review. The definition of "judicial review" varies in different countries, but as one of the basic principle of modern rule of law, the basic meaning of the phrase has been commonly agreed upon by modern legal states. "Judicial review" in the law of WTO obviously covers the average meaning of the phrase in the sense of modern rule of law. Seven WTO agreements make requirements on judicial review. Their specific stipulations may not be the same, but they all make requirements on the independence of review organs and the objectivity and impartiality of review procedures. Judicial review is of essential significance because of the following reasons: 1) it reflects the content of the principle of transparency in WTO; 2) it makes rules more operable and actionable: 3) it reflects the constitutionality of WTO and the essence of modern rule of law. 4) it plays a vital role in supervising WTO members' observing WTO rules. WTO cares for judicial review because judicial review system not only safeguards member governments' observance to WTO rules and liberality of world trade, but also reduces the cost of settlement of international trade disputes. WTO members attach importance to judicial review because trade policies can be consistently implemented in the state by means of judicial review on trade-related administrative actions. In addition, by judicial review, members can find flaws of their trade policy and gain time for adjusting domestic industrial structure and trade policy.The second section analyses the relationship between WTO and judicial review in four aspects. 1) Subjects. Different WTO agreements make different stipulations on subjects of judicial review. Some provide judicial, arbitral and administrative courts as subjects of judicial review, some explicitly stipulate judicial courts are theexclusive subjects of judicial review, others make no stipulations on subjects of judicial review. Since the constit... |
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