The Approach Of Ordinary Meaning For Treaty Interpretations In The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism

The issue of treaty interpretations has been one of the hottest issues for discussions among academics since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). According to the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the WTO dispute settlement body (DSB) should comply with relevant rules provided in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Convention) by interpreting treaties in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning and interpreting terms of treaties within their contexts for objectives and purposes. In other words, three elements for treat interpretations should be combined together to apply. That is, treaty interpretations guided by the principle of good faith should consider the context of articles as well as the objective and purpose indicated in the treaty.Up to date, numerous international trade disputes have been resolved by WTO panels and the Appellate Body. Reports issued by panels and the Appellate Body are important resources to find out rules for interpretations applied in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). Although these disputes and treaties concerned are various, approaches and methods for treaty interpretations applied in those panel reports and thereof in the Appellate Body’s reports are quite similar. That is, WTO panels and the Appellate Body attach great importance to the approach of ordinary meaning for terms interpretations in the context of treaties. Therefore, the approach of ordinary meaning for interpretations are regular methods applied to treaty interpretations in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. This approach has its significant role and independent status in treaty interpretations. This thesis serves to do some research in the application of the approach of ordinary meaning for treaty interpretations within the framework of the WTO DSM. Part I of the thesis discusses the theoretical basis embedded in the approach of ordinary meaning which is applied to the WTO DSM. Based upon the general introduction of treaties and their interpretations, the thesis introduces detailed rules concerned in the Convention and briefly analyzes its possibility and necessity for treaty interpretations when the WTO DSB applies the Convention in interpretations.Part II of the thesis discusses relevant practices of the approach of ordinary meaning for treaty interpretations in the WTO DSM. It starts with a brief introduction of general rules provided by this approach in the WTO DSM. Then it analyzes features of the approach concerned in practice by discussing panel reports and the Appellate Body’s reports for some classic disputes in the WTO.Part III of the thesis discusses the role and status of the approach of ordinary meaning in the WTO DSM. By doing a comparative research in the approach of ordinary meaning and other approaches for treaty interpretations in the WTO, the thesis concludes that various approaches for treaty interpretations should be combined together and applied integrally in order to bring more definite and accurate outcomes for treaty interpretations. This will help to achieve the goal of the principle of good faith. Finally, the thesis provides some remarks on the application and limitations of this approach in the WTO DSM and proposes some suggestions to improve.