Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T11:16:11.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

In the Shadow of Law or Power? Consensus-Based Bargaining and Outcomes in the GATT/WTO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2003

Get access

Abstract

This article explains how consensus decision making has operated in practice in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO). When GATT/WTO bargaining is law-based, consensus outcomes are Pareto-improving and roughly symmetrical. When bargaining is power-based, states bring to bear instruments of power that are extrinsic to rules, invisibly weighting the process and generating consensus outcomes that are asymmetrical and may not be Pareto-improving. Empirical analysis shows that although trade rounds have been launched through law-based bargaining, hard law is generated when a round is closed, and rounds have been closed through power-based bargaining. Agenda setting has taken place in the shadow of that power and has been dominated by the European Community and the United States. The decision making rules have been maintained because they help generate information used by powerful states in the agenda-setting process. Consensus decision making at the GATT/WTO is organized hypocrisy, allowing adherence to the instrumental reality of asymmetrical power and the sovereign equality principle upon which consensus decision making is purportedly based.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, Kenneth W., Keohane, Robert O., Moravscik, Andrew, Slaughter, Anne-Marie, and Snidal, Duncan. 2000. The Concept of Legalization. International Organization 54 (3):401–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abbott, Kenneth W., and Snidal, Duncan. 2000. Hard Law and Soft Law in International Governance. International Organization 54 (3):421–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1974. The Limits of Organization. Toronto, Ont.: Fels Center of Government.Google Scholar
Atlantic Council of the United States. 1976. GATT Plus—A Proposal for Trade Reform. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert, and Keohane, Robert O.. 1985. Achieving Cooperation Under Anarchy: Strategies and Institutions. World Politics 38 (1):226–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bainbridge, Stephen M. 1998. Privately Ordered Participatory Management: An Organizational Failures Analysis. Delaware Journal of Corporate Law 23 (3):9791076.Google Scholar
Banzhaf, J. 1965. Weighted Voting Doesn't Work: A Mathematical Analysis. Rutgers Law Review 19:317–43.Google Scholar
Baron, David, and Ferejohn, John. 1989. Bargaining in Legislatures. American Political Science Review 83:11811206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Raymond A., Pool, Ithiel de Sola, and Dexter, Lewis Anthony. 1963. American Business and Public Policy: The Politics of Foreign Trade. New York: Atherton Press.Google Scholar
Beier, Friedrick-Karl, and Schricker, Gerhard. 1989. GATT or WIPO? New Ways in the International Protection of Intellectual Property. IIC Studies, Vol. 11. New York: VCH Publishers.Google Scholar
Bernauer, Thomas. 1995. The Effect of International Environmental Institutions: How We Might Learn More. International Organization 49 (2):351–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackhurst, Richard. 1998. The Capacity of the WTO to Fulfill Its Mandate. In The WTO as an International Organization, edited by Krueger, Anne, 3158. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Blackhurst, Richard. 2001. Reforming WTO Decision-Making: Lessons From Singapore and Seattle. In The World Trade Organization: Freer Trade in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Deutsch, Klaus Gunter and Speyer, Bernhard, 295310. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bowett, D. W. 1957. Estoppel Before International Tribunals and Its Relation to Acquiescence. British Yearbook of International Law 176202.Google Scholar
Brams, Stephen J., and Affuso, Paul J.. 1985. New Paradoxes of Voting Power in the EC Council of Ministers. Electoral Studies 4 (August):135–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunsson, Nils. 1989. The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions, and Action in Organizations. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Bull, Hedley. 1977. The Anarchical Society. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buzan, Barry. 1981. Negotiating By Consensus: Developments in Technique at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. American Journal of International Law 75:324–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caminker, Evan. 1999. Sincere and Strategic Voting Norms on Multi-member Courts. Michigan Law Review 97: 22972380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caron, David D. 1993. The Legitimacy of the Collective Authority of the Security Council. American Journal of International Law 87:552–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency. 1995. The World Fact Book 1995. Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency.Google Scholar
Charny, David. 1997. The Economic Analysis of Deliberative Procedures. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard Law School.Google Scholar
Chayes, Abraham, and Chayes, Antonia Handler. 1998. The New Sovereignty: Compliance with International Regulatory Agreements. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clermont, Kevin M., and Eisenberg, Theodore. 1996. Xenophilia in American Courts. Harvard Law Review 109:1120–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Benjamin J. 1985. International Debt and Linkage Strategies: Some Foreign Policy Implications for the United States. International Organization 39(4):699727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Robert W., and Jacobson, Harold K., eds. 1973. The Anatomy of Influence. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Curzon, Gerard, and Curzon, Victoria. 1973. GATT: Traders' Club. In The Anatomy of Influence, edited by Cox, Robert W. and Jacobson, Harold K., 298333. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Douglas, and Holt, Charles. 1993. Experimental Economics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, Edwin DeWitt. 1920. The Equality of States in International Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, George W., Rocke, David M., and Barsoom, Peter N.. 1998. Managing the Evolution of Multilateralism. International Organization 52 (2):397420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esty, Daniel C., and Geradin, Damien. 1997. Environmental Protection in Regional Trade Agreements: The European Community and NAFTA. In Regionalism and Multilateralism After the Uruguay Round: Convergence, Divergence and Interaction, edited by Demaret, Paul, Bellis, Jean-Francois, and Jimenez, Gonzalo Garcia, 541–86. Brussels: European Interuniversity Press.Google Scholar
Finger, J. Michael, Reincke, Ulrich, and Castro, Adriana. 1999. Market Access Bargaining in the Uruguay Round: Rigid or Relaxed Reciprocity? World Bank Paper No. 2258. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finger, J. Michael, and Schuler, Philip. 1999. Implementation of the Uruguay Round Commitments: The Development Challenge. World Bank Working Paper No. 2215. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, Roger, Ury, William, and Patton, Bruce. 1991. Getting to Yes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Franck, Thomas. 1990. The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Geoffrey, and Tsebelis, George. 1996. An Institutional Critique of Intergovernmentalism. International Organization 50 (2):269300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilpin, Robert. 1981. War and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, Joseph. 1972. Voting and Decisions in the International Monetary Fund: An Essay on the Law and Practice of the Fund. Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Goldin, I., Knudsen, O., and van der Mensbrugghe, D.. 1993. Trade Liberalization: Global Economic Implications. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith, and Martin, Lisa. 2000. Legalization, Trade Liberalization, and Domestic Politics: A Cautionary Note. International Organization 54 (3):603–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Govaere, Inge, and Demaret, Paul. 2001. The TRIPs Agreement: A Response to Global Regulatory Competition or an Exercise in Global Regulatory Coercion? In Regulatory Competition and Economic Integration: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Esty, Daniel C. and Geradin, Damien, 364–80. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, Samuel R., and Syverud, Kent D.. 1996. Don't Try: Civil Jury Verdicts in a System Geared to Settlement. UCLA Law Review 44:164.Google Scholar
Gruber, Lloyd. 2001. Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Suprarational Institutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
G-77 and China. 2001. Declaration of the G-77 and China on the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar, 22 October 2001. Available at ⟨www.g77.org/Docs/Doha/htm⟩. Accessed 10 November 2001.Google Scholar
Haas, Ernst B. 1980. Why Collaborate?: Issue-Linkage and International Regimes. World Politics 32(3):357405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, Peter M. 1989. Do Regimes Matter? Epistemic Communities and Mediterranean Pollution Control. International Organization 43 (3):377405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, Jurgen. 1979. Communication and the Evolution of Society. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, Glenn W., Rutherford, Thomas F., and Tarr, David G.. 1996. Quantifying the Uruguay Round. In The Uruguay Round and the Developing Countries, edited by Martin, Will and Winters, L. Alan, 216252. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1961. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1945. National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoekman, Bernard M. 1989. Determining the Need for Issue Linkages in Multilateral Trade Negotiations. International Organization 43 (4):693714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosli, Madeleine O. 1993. The Admission of the European Free Trade Association to the European Community. International Organization 47 (4):629–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudec, Robert. 1988. Reforming GATT Adjudication Procedures: The Lessons of the DISC Case. Minnesota Law Review 72: 1443–87.Google Scholar
Hufbauer, Gary. 1989. Beyond GATT. Foreign Policy 77 (Winter):6476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, John H. 1969. World Trade and the Law of GATT. Charlottesville, Va: The Michie Company.Google Scholar
Johnston, R. J. 1995. The Conflict Over Qualified Majority Voting In the European Council of Ministers: An Analysis of the U.K. Negotiating Stance Using Power Indices. British Journal of Political Science 25 (2):245–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kegley, Charles W. Jr and Hook, Steven W.. 1991. U.S. Foreign Aid and U.N. Voting: Did Reagan's Linkage Strategy Buy Deference or Defiance? International Studies Quarterly 35 (3):295312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelson, Hans. 1944. The Principle of Sovereign Equality of States as a Basis for International Organization. Yale Law Journal 53 (2):207–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennan, George F. 1972. Memoirs: 1950–63. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1983. The Demand for International Regimes. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 141–72. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1984. After Hegemony. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kock, Karin. 1969. International Trade Policy and the GATT, 1947–1967. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Korobkin, Russell. 2000. A Positive Theory of Legal Negotiation. Georgetown Law Journal 88: 17891831.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001. The Rational Design of International Institutions. International Organization 55 (4):761–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1976. State Power and the Structure of International Trade. World Politics 28 (3):317–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1983a. Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 122. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1983b. Regimes and the Limits of Realism: Regimes as Autonomous Variables. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 355–68. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1985. Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakatos, Imre. 1970. Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs. In Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, edited by Lakatos, Imre and Musgrave, Alan, 91196. London: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGibbon, I. C. 1958. Estoppel in International Law. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 7:468513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manno, Catherine Senf. 1966. Selective Weighted Voting in the UN General Assembly. International Organization 20 (1):3762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, James G., with the assistance of Chip Heath. 1994. Primer on Decision-Making: How Decisions Happen. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1998. The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders. International Organization 52m (4):943–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Lisa L. 1993. International and Domestic Institutions in the EMU Process. Economics and Politics 5 (July):125–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Lisa L., and Simmons, Beth. 1998. Theories and Empirical Studies of International Institutions. International Organization 52 (4):729–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
M'bow, Amadou-Mahtar. 1978. The Practice of Consensus in International Organizations. International Social Science Journal 30 (4):893903.Google Scholar
McIntyre, Elizabeth. 1954. Weighted Voting in International Organizations. International Organization 8 (4):484–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco O.. 1997. World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology 103 (1):144–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Helen V. 1998. Rationalizing Politics: The Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics. International Organization 52 (4):759–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mnookin, Robert H., and Kornhauser, Lewis. 1979. Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Divorce. Yale Law Journal 88:950–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1998. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans. 1940. Positivism, Functionalism, and International Law. American Journal of International Law 34:260–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans. 1978. Politics Among Nations. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Odell, John. 2002. The Seattle Impasse and Its Implications for the World Trade Organization. In The Political-Economy of International Trade Law: Essays in Honor of Robert E. Hudec, edited by Kennedy, Daniel L. M. and Southwick, James D.. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oloka-Onyango, J., and Udagama, Deepika. 2000. The Realization of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights. U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub. 2/2000/13. New York: U.N. Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.Google Scholar
Overseas Development Institute. 1995. Developing Countries in the WTO. 1995 Briefing Paper No. 3. Available at ⟨www.odi.org.uk/briefing/odi_developing.html⟩.Google Scholar
Oxley, Alan. 1990. The Challenge of Free Trade. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Paemen, Hugo, and Bensch, Alexandra. 1995. From the GATT to the WTO: The European Community and the Uruguay Round. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, Gardner, and Patterson, Eliza. 1994. The Road from GATT to MTO. Minnesota Journal of Global Trade 3 (1):3559.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl. 1959. Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porges, Amelia. 1995. The New Dispute Settlement: From the GATT to the WTO. Leiden Journal of International Law 8 (1):132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Victoria Curzon. 1992. New Institutional Development in GATT. Minnesota Journal of Global Trade 17:87105.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 1988. Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games. International Organization 42 (3):427–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rai, Kul B. 1980. Foreign Aid and Voting in the U.N. General Assembly, 1967–76. Journal of Peace Research 17 (3):269–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raiffa, Howard. 1982. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ramakrishna, Hegde. 1998. Statement Circulated By Mr. Ramakrishna, Minister of Commerce, at the Second Session of the WTO Ministerial Conference, Geneva. WTO Doc. WT/MIN (98)/ST/36 (98–2030). 18 May 1998.Google Scholar
Raustiala, Kal. 1997. States, NGOs and International Environmental Institutions. International Studies Quarterly 41 (4):719–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raustiala, Kal, and Victor, David. 1998. Conclusions. In The Implementation and Effectiveness of International Environmental Commitments: Theory and Practice, edited by Raustiala, Kal, Victor, David G. and Skolnikoff, Eugene B., 659707. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Remec, Peter Pavel. 1960. The Position of the Individual in International Law According to Grotius and Vattel. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riches, Cromwell A. 1940. Majority Rule in International Organization. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Riker, William, and Shapley, L. S.. 1968. Weighted Voting: A Mathematical Analysis for Instrumental Judgements. In Nomos X: Representation, edited by Pennock, J. Ronald and Chapman, John W., 199216. New York: Atherton Press.Google Scholar
Roessler, Frieder. 1987. The Competence of GATT. Journal of World Trade Law 21 (3):7383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1983. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 195232. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Schachter, Oscar. 1999. The Role of Power in International Law. In Proceedings of the American Society of International Law, edited by Hargrove, John Lawrence, 200205. Washington, D.C.: American Society of International Law.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. 1935. Politics, Pressures and the Tariff: A Study of Free Enterprise in Pressure Politics as Shown In the 1929–30 Revision of the Tariff. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Schermers, Henry G., and Blokker, Niels M.. 1995. International Institutional Law: Unity Within Diversity. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Shapley, L. S., and Shubik, Martin. 1954. A Method for Evaluating the Distribution of Power in a Committee System. American Political Science Review 48 (3):787–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzenberger, Georg. 1957. International Law. London: Stevens.Google Scholar
Sikkink, Kathryn. 1993. Human Rights, Principled Issue-Networks, and Sovereignty in Latin America. International Organization 47 (3):411–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simma, Bruno, and Paulus, Andreas L.. 1999. The Responsibility of Individuals for Human Rights Abuses in Internal Conflicts: A Positivist View. American Journal of International Law 93:302–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sohn, Louis. 1975. Voting Procedures in U.N. Conferences for the Codification of International Law. American Journal of International Law 69:310–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srinivasan, T. N. 1998. Developing Countries and the Multilateral Trading System. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Arthur A. 1993. Why Nations Cooperate. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Steinberg, Richard H. 1994. The Uruguay Round: A Legal Analysis of the Final Act. International Quarterly 6 (2):197.Google Scholar
Steinberg, Richard H. 1999. The Prospects for Partnership: Overcoming Obstacles to Transatlantic Trade Policy Cooperation in Asia. In Partners or Competitors? The Prospects for U.S.-EU Cooperation on Asian Trade, edited by Steinberg, Richard H. and Stokes, Bruce, 213–50. Boulder, Colo.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Tsebelis, George. 1994. The Power of the European Parliament as a Conditional Agenda-Setter. American Political Science Review 88 (1):128–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vattel, Emeric de. 1852. The Law of Nations. Philadelphia, Penn.: T and J. W. Johnson, Law Booksellers.Google Scholar
Viner, Jacob. 1950. The Customs Union Issue. New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
von Neumann, John, and Morgenstern, Oskar. 1947. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1970. The Myth of Interdependence. In The International Corporation, edited by Kindleberger, Charles, 205–23. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wang, T. Y. 1999. U.S. Foreign Aid and UN Voting: An Analysis of Important Issues. International Studies Quarterly 43 (1):199210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiler, Joseph. 1982. Community, Member States, and European Integration: Is the Law Relevant? Journal of Common Market Studies 21 (192):3956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weston, Burns H. 1991. Security Council Resolution 678 and Persian Gulf Decision Making: Precarious Legitimacy. American Journal of International Law 85:516–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, Clair. 1972. A Charter for World Trade. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Winham, Gilbert R. 1986. International Trade and the Tokyo Round Negotiation. Princeton. N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Winham, Gilbert R. 1989. The Prenegotiation Phase of the Uruguay Round. In Getting to the Table: The Processes of International Prenegotiation, edited by Stein, Janice Gross, 4467. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
World Trade Organization. 1995. International Trade: 1995 Trends and Statistics. Geneva: WTO.Google Scholar
Zamora, Stephen. 1980. Voting in International Economic Organizations. American Journal of International Law 74:566608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar