Decision-Making by Consensus in the WTO
Decision-making processes are among the most important methods of functioning against which the legitimacy of one institution may be rated. It is because they show how the organization treats its members and thereby fulfils the first and minimal level of accountability. Moreover, in the recent trend of international fora, especially the WTO, decision-making by consensus has become popular. This characteristic of the WTO makes it considerably and significantly different from other international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), where decisions are based on weighted voting. In the WTO, consensus based decision-making is popular, while voting is possible and/or mandatory only in some special cases. In voting process, each member state has one vote and therefore allowing equal status to all members irrespective of trade shares or general economic size. The principle of equality of voting status of member states is clearly seen in the formal structures of the WTO. The top body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which meets every two years. The day-to-day workings of the WTO are carried out by the General Council. The General Council also meets in the guise of the Trade Policy Review Body and the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). Below the General Council are the Councils for Goods, Services and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), along with Committees that report directly to the General Council. Representation at all three levels is open to all members of the WTO. The provisions stipulate the use of consensus and voting in the WTO covered Agreements will be examined in the first section. The advantages and disadvantages of consensus are the core discussion in section 2. On the one hand, consensus in decision-making offers developing countries with equal voice with their developed partners irrespective of trade shares and economic sizes. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of developing countries, they have to face a lot of disadvantages deriving from the consensus based decision-making. Finally, in order to help WTO become the most democratic, efficient, transparent and legitimate organization in promoting international trade, some recommendations about the reform of the WTO in the field of decision-making are raised.
The political economy of the world trading system
The Political Economy of the World Trading System is a comprehensive textbook account of the economics, institutional mechanics and politics of the world trading system. This third edition has been expanded and updated to cover developments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since its formation, including the Doha Round, presenting the essentials of trade negotiations and the WTO's rules and disciplines. The authors focus in particular on the WTO's role as the primary organisation through which trading nations manage their commercial interactions and the focal point for cooperation on policy responses to the rapidly changing global trading environment. It is the forum in which many features of the globalisation process are considered, and it currently faces an unprecedented set of challenges. The increasing importance of countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa in international trade relations, the revealed preference towards regionalism, intensification of trade conflicts, the role of business groups and NGOs in trade policy formation and negotiations, and pressures for more leadership in an institution threatened by paralysis are examples of issues that are discussed in some detail; all are critical for the operation of the system and for international business in the coming decade. This edition also includes numerous real-world examples to illustrate how the WTO impinges on business, workers and households, written from the perspective of managers and business associations. An insider's view of the institutional history of the WTO allows the authors to use a variety of conceptual tools to analyse the working of the WTO in a non-technical manner. Suggestions for Further Reading at the end of each chapter and an extensive bibliography make the volume suitable both for introductory and postgraduate courses on international economics and business, international relations, and international economic law.
Medieval Modal Theories and Modal Logic Handbook of the History of Logic. Volume 2: Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic
1The translation of the Categories is edited by L. Minio-Paluello in Aristoteles Latinus 1.1-5 (Bruges-Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1961) and the translation of the De interpretatione by L. Minio-Paluello in Aristoteles Latinus II.1-2 (Bruges-Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1965). The translation of Porphyry's Isagoge is edited by L. Minio-Paluello and B.G. Dod in Aristoteles Latinus 1.6-7 (Bruges-Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1966). Boethius's commentary on Aristotle's Categories is found in Patrologia Latina (ed. J.-P. Migne), 64, 159-294, De syllogismis categoricis in Patrologia Latina 64, 793-832, In Ciceronis Topica in Patrologia Latina 64, 1039-1169; an English translation with notes and an introduction by E. Stump, and De differentiis topicis in Patrologia Latina 64, 1174-1216; an English translation with notes and essays by E. Stump, Boethius's De topicis differentiis (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1978), Boethius's In Ciceronis Topica (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1988). Boethius's two commentaries on De interpretatione are edited by C. Meiser (Leipzig: Teubner, 1877-1880), his two commentaries on Porphyry's Isagoge by S. Brandt, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 48 (Leipzig: G. Freytag, Vienna: F.Tempsky, 1906), De hypotheticis syllogismis by L. Obertello (Brescia: Paideia, 1969) and De divisione by J. Magee, with a translation and commentary (Leiden: Brill, 1998). Some other ancient works were also used, such as Apuleius's Peri hermeneias (ed. C. Moreschini in Opera III (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1991), Augustine's Dialectica, trans, with notes by B.D. Jackson from the text edited by J. Pinborg, Synthese Historical Library 16 (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1975), and pseudo-Augustinean De decern categoriis, ed. L. Minio-Paluello, in Aristoteles Latinus 1.1-5, 133-75. For the sources of eleventh and twelfth century logic, see J. Marenbon, 'Medieval Latin Commentaries and Glosses on Aristotelian Logical Texts, Before c. 1150 AD' in Ch. Burnett (ed.), Glosses and Commentaries on Aristotelian Logical Tezts (Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts 23), (London: Warburg Institute, 1993), 77-127, republished and revised in J. Marenbon, Aristotelian Logic, Platonism, and the Contezt of Early Medieval Philosophy in the West, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000). 2Analytica priora, ed. L. Minio-Paluello, Aristoteles Latinus III.l-4 (Bruges-Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1962), Analytica posteriora, ed. L. Minio-Paluello and B.G. Dod, Aristoteles Latinns IV.l-4 (Bruges-Paris: Descl~e de Brouwer, 1968), Topica, ed. L. Minio-Paluello and B.G.