A THEORY OF WTO LAW Chios Carmody * The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization

Abstract

The creation of theWorldTrade Organization (WTO) in 1994 has left open the question of whether we can identify a theory of its legal system. Atheory should help us to better understand whatWTOlaw is as well as what it should be. This article posits the idea that a theory can be identified if we conceive of theWTO Agreement as protecting expectations about trade, facilitating adjustment to realities encountered in trade, and promoting interdependence. Each of these purposes is implemented under theWTOAgreement by a specific instrument. In the case of expectations it is collective obligations, in the case of realities it is individual rights, and in the case of interdependence it is a combination of the foregoing two, a lex specialis. The interaction is emblematic of a deeper division within the treaty between opposing modes of law.