As the WTO enters its second decade, it is only fitting for the WTO community at large to step back for a moment to reflect on how the organization and the many agreements it administers have functioned over the first decade and to determine whether there are any particular lessons to be learned and applied in the future. This publication attempts to assist in this regard with respect to the operation of the WTO dispute settlement system.

While the material contained in this volume is far from exhaustive, it does cover a representative cross-section of the various issues and situations under the Dispute Settlement Understanding that WTO Members have had to deal with during the first decade. Most importantly, the publication is unique because it includes contributions from virtually the entire gamut of actors involved in the day-to-day operation of the WTO dispute settlement system – Member government representatives, private lawyers who litigate on behalf of Member governments in the system, Appellate Body members, Appellate Body Secretariat staff, and WTO Secretariat staff. It also includes contributions from several academic scholars who closely follow and carefully scrutinize all that goes on within the system.

This book contains 21 relatively short and straightforward chapters on various aspects of the dispute settlement system. Each chapter is based largely on the individual author's own personal experience with, or study of, the system.