Legitimacy Chains and International legal Authority: The WTO Appellate Body and Transformations of National Sovereignty

• In Event: 163 - Regular Session. Sociology of Law

Abstract

The legitimation of decisions by the Appellate Body of the WTO occurs through distinct but interconnected legal and political processes. Whether and how they are linked into a chain of legitimation modulates the value and significance of particular legal acts, which in the case of “zeroing,” a series of disputes over a method for calculating when imports are sold at less than market value, enabled compliance despite contested legal validity claims and absent significant coercion. This legitimacy chain relied on work by various interlocutors that ultimately enhanced the role of the Appellate Body as the final arbiter of legitimate trade practices.

Author

• Joseph A. Conti, University of Wisconsin-Madison