| Book Title | WTO Law and Process |
| Book Author | Andenas, Mads and Ortino, Federico (eds.) |
| Bibliographic Information | British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2005, Pages : 542, $160.00, ISBN 0903067684 |
Review note
WTO Law and Process. Edited by Mads Andenas and Federico Ortino. London: British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2005. Pp. 542. $160.00.
Reviewed by Oliver Landwehr.
WTO – Law and Process by M. Andenas and F. Ortino (eds.) is a collection of papers submitted and presented as well as the ensuing discussions held in the course of three recent Annual WTO Conferences organised by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). The book is divided into three parts which contain the materials of the Conferences in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The word “materials” is used here because the collection not only makes available for a larger audience the papers presented at the Conferences, but also the minutes of the discussions with the audience which followed these presentations. Within the three main parts, the topics are arranged in chapters (mirroring the respective panels) and range from compliance problems to the relationship between WTO and general international law, with dispute settlement issues taking centre stage during all three Conferences. Except for eight papers which were submitted to or after the Conferences in writing, the book exclusively consists of verbatim transcripts of the presentations and discussions.
As is to be expected with this form of presentation, some of the advantages of the book also represent its weaknesses. The transcripts make colourful reading, but sometimes it might have been preferable to edit the often elliptical or repetitive oral style. It also means that some of the errors in the original transcripts (which, in all likelihood, were not typed up by lawyers) have made it into the book (cf. p. 484: “pactus sunt servanda” or p. 487: “mono systems”). Finally, while dispute settlement seemed to provide the Leitmotiv for all three Conferences, the topics are necessarily disparate and cannot (and are not intended to) provide a comprehensive overview of WTO law – even though the title of the book might lead to such expectations. What the book can and does is to provide an up-to-date overview of topical discussions in this fast evolving field of international trade law.
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