This chapter examines the engagement of women next of kin of forcibly disappeared individuals in Sri Lanka with the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF). The CTF was tasked with consulting on the design of four transitional justice mechanisms in 2016, including an Office on Missing Persons. Even though the government refused to respect the findings of this process, the chapter shows that the CTF generated a significant archive that can be probed as an ‘archive of desire’. This archive can help us to understand not only the demands of victim-survivors in relation to what form of justice or what kind of mechanisms they believe can deliver justice, but also the depth of affective feelings and investments underlying these demands. In post-war Sri Lanka, this archive continues to challenge and resist dominant narratives of denial and efforts to entrench impunity for forced disappearances. However, such archives equally serve as a resource to build solidarity across differences, to cultivate practices of listening to the ‘Other’, and to refigure the state towards recognising and redressing its sovereign violence.

Drawing on extensive consultations with relevant stakeholders in Uganda, this chapter seeks to understand how the international standardisation of transitional justice has impacted domestic transitional justice processes in Uganda, and notably victims’ roles therein. It zooms in on the increasingly sanitised involvement and participation of local stakeholders, including victims. The chapter shows how, despite the presence of language such as ‘local consultation’, ‘participation’, and ‘victims-centeredness’, a genuine intention among decision-makers to give meaningful effect to such principles has been missing. As such, formal ‘compliance’ with ideas about civil society and victim participation, as endorsed by international standards and guidelines about transitional justice, has not resulted in outcomes that met the expectations and demands of most local civil society and victim groups in Uganda. The chapter focuses mainly on the process surrounding the adoption of Uganda’s Transitional Justice Policy, but adds perspectives from other relevant frameworks and processes where particularly relevant.

This chapter examines ‘Regulatory Policy’ by addressing various questions that arise in considering ‘whether’ and ‘how’ to regulate. Regulatory policy includes a range of methodologies such as cost-benefit analysis and regulatory impact assessment. This chapter focuses on the methodologies used by public regulators. This chapter discusses the methods that help regulators assess who will be impacted by regulation, whether a regulation is effective, and what its costs and benefits will be. The chapter discusses the history of regulatory policy and delves into cost-benefit analysis, regulatory impact assessment, and consultations. The chapter includes a brief analysis of better regulation policies.

The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) was one of the chief results of the Uruguay Round. Dispute settlement under the GATT had not been binding. Adoption of panel reports could be, and too often was, blocked by the losing party. All of the major trading members wanted dispute settlement to be binding, to have definitive results. They carefully constructed a complex system to remedy past defects. It had internal inconsistencies that only became apparent over time.

To maintain the highest level of your four reserve factors it is necessary to know how to interact with the medical profession and the medications they prescribe. It is also valuable to understand and appreciate the perspective of clinical research. As patients, we have the right to have our story and voice heard, to be treated like human beings. Our stories are an important part of who we are. Many people are exceptionally passive in their pursuit of medical care and will accept whatever negligence, avoidance, or abuse they receive. It’s up to us to be a powerful advocate for our own welfare and insist on having medical professionals listen to our stories and attend to our needs. Ways to choose physicians are discussed. Also reviewed are how to manage your medications, vaccines, and how to lower the risk of medical errors. Guidelines are presented on the advantages and dangers of participation in clinic research. It is necessary to be an active participant in your own care and fierce in the pursuit of what’s best for you.

Chapter 12 describes the multiple notification requirements contained in the Agreement on Safeguards on domestic regulations on safeguard measures as well as on key aspects of specific safeguard actions. The chapter explains the consequences of these notifications and the specific actions that other Members may take to defend their commercial interest. It also discusses the question of the adequate opportunity to hold consultations under Article 12.3 of the agreement, and the question of cross-notifications to be made by third Members. The Chapter presents statistics on the use of safeguard investigations, safeguard measures and rebalancing actions in the light of the notifications made by WTO Members between 1995 and 2020.

Chapter 15 contains an explanation of the basic rules and procedures contained in Article XIX of the GATT 1994, in the light of the developed requirements and rules contained in the Agreement on Safeguards. It is a summary that places most of the provisions of the Agreement on Safeguards in perspective with Article XIX as the starting point of the multilateral regime on safeguard measures.

Chapter 14 covers the provision on dispute settlement and consultations in the Agreement on Safeguards. This provision follows the general dispute settlement rules and procedures contained in the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding and Articles XXII and XXIII of the GATT 1994. It is technically the legal basis for the handling of disputes on the application of the Agreement on Safeguards. Chapter 14 explains how the dispute settlement process operates at its different stages and the usual issues that arise in the conduct of safeguard disputes. The chapter also provides statistics on the performance of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in respect of safeguard investigations and safeguard measures. It provides practical considerations derived from the experience of the author as an active litigant in dispute settlement proceedings.

Chapter 8 explains a process that is unique to the multilateral safeguard mechanism and that is sometimes misunderstood: the process of rebalancing. The chapter examines the conceptual questions that arise with the general notion of rebalancing as relating to a negotiation-derived consequence. It notes that the obligation of maintaining the balance of concessions informs the whole rebalancing exercise, in particular the consultations under Articles 8.1 and 12.3, the consideration of the means of compensation, and the notion of the withdrawal of substantially equivalent concessions and other obligations under the GATT 1994. The Chapter also explains the temporary suspension of the right to take rebalancing action under Article 8.2, and the natural tension that exists between the mandates of this provision and the conduct of dispute settlement proceedings under the DSU.

This chapter contains a comprehensive, step-by-step analysis of the consultations phase in WTO dispute settlement. Then the chapter examines the practice and procedure used to establish a WTO panel and the composition of the panel. The chapter then analyzes the panel process step-by-step, including the organizational meeting, the working procedures, the written submissions to the panel, the hearings of the panel, the interim report, and the final report. The chapter also discusses the role of third parties and of the WTO Secretariat in the panel process.

Except as otherwise provided herein, the Dispute Settlement Understanding is applicable to consultations and the settlement of disputes under this Agreement.