Abstract :
Globalization, technological development and the growing awareness of issue linkages pose dynamic challenges to the relationships of international law’s distinct rule-systems. Within the increasingly fragmented realm of international law, the World Trade Organization (WTO) holds a contentious position because of the relative extent to which it has been successful in advancing its mission of multilateral trade liberalization. Much of this success is a result of the institution’s effective and binding dispute settlement system. However, the WTO’s ability to reconcile multilateral trade liberalization with other, sometimes conflicting, public values, is a central concern to the institution’s legitimacy and is, therefore, vital to further advancing free trade and to realizing its many benefits. Current international judicial bodies function under regimes whose purposes and values are not always aligned with that of environmental protection. Some of these bodies were established in an environmentally innocent era, when the protection of the environment was not elevated as a fundamental societal value at the international level.
Keyword :
Disputes; Environment; World Trade Organization; Public values