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4 J. World Trade L. 615 (1970)
GATT Legal System: A Diplomat's Jurisprudence, The

handle is hein.kluwer/jwt0004 and id is 635 raw text is: The GATT Legal System:
A Diplomat's Jurisprudence
ROBERT E. HUDEC
ONE OF THE MORE STRIKING               PUZZLES'        of   the   GATT      legal
system is the apparent contradiction between the style of the General
Agreement itself and the manner in which the GATT Contracting Parties
have gone about enforcing it. The substantive obligations of the Agree-
ment resemble a tax code; they form a long, complex and carefully
drafted instrument which is on the whole fairly rigorous in its demands.
The GATT's enforcement procedures, by contrast, present a front of
ambiguity and uncertainty which seems altogether at odds with the
lawyerlike precision of the code. The provisions of the Agreement dealing
with dispute settlement seem to make no functional distinction between
breach of legal obligations and other grievances. Legal decisions rendered
under that procedure tend to be deliberately obscure, often leaving it
unclear whether there has even been a legal ruling at all.
The apparent contradictions are the manifestations of a distinctive
jurisprudence. It is a jurisprudence puzzling to lawyers, for it is primarily
the work of diplomats rather than lawyers. Working with the tools
peculiar to their own profession, the GATT diplomats have developed
an approach toward law which attempts to reconcile, on their own terms,
the regulatory objectives of a conventional legal system with the turbulent
realities of international trade affairs.
Note on citations: Documents of the series E/PC/T or E/Conf. 2 cited in Part I of this article
are United Nations Documents. The documents cited in Part II are, unless otherwise
indicated, official GATT documents.
'The generic term is Professor Jackson's. See Jackson, The Puzzle ofGA TT, 1 7. W. T.L., 131
(1967). Attraction to these puzzles has produced no less than four recent books on GATT.
See Jackson, World Trade and the Law of GA TT (1969); Dam, The GA TT, Law and Inter-
national Economic Organization (1969); Kock, International Trade Policy and the GATT 1947-67
(1969); Flory, Le GATT, Droit International et Commerce Mondial (1968).
Robert E. Hudec is Associate Professor of Law, rale Law School.
This article has been drawn from a more extensive study of the GA TT legal system. The author wishes to
acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of the Henry L. Stimson Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Ford Foundation in providing the resources which have made this research possible. Particular thanks are
also owing to the members of the GA TT Secretariat, past and present, whose generous gift of their time and
experience have greatly enriched this study and whose welcome and assistance have made research in the GA TT
archives an experience all too easily prolonged.
615
Copyright © 2007 by Kluwer Law International. All rights reserved.
No claim asserted to original government works.

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