Editor's note
Professor Yang Guohua of Law School of Tsinghua University's new work "jungle reappearance? ——The rise and fall of WTO appeal mechanism has been published by people's publishing house. This book is the author's description of the whole process of the appellate body from prosperity to decline in combination with his own practical experience and theoretical research, revealing a section of the truth of international law. The official account has been introduced (see "a dialogue between teachers and students"). Now, the book review by Professor Peng Yue of Nanjing University law school is published for the readers.
In the period of rapid development of global economy in the past quarter century, it is inevitable for Chinese international economic jurists to be entangled with the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. It integrates compulsory jurisdiction, independent adjudication and appeal review. It is known as the Pearl on the crown of WTO, and it is a perfect model of super national judicial institution that international jurists can imagine. It is through studying the classic decisions of appeal agencies one by one that the students who have just entered the palace of international economic law have access to the door and see the beauty of the temple and the wealth of officials. It is through continuous analysis, sorting out and criticism of the reports of appeal agencies that international economic law scholars have entered the room and gradually formed a common understanding of WTO law that there is no clause and no case Homomorphism. However, as the human society enters the second decade of the 21st century, the WTO dispute settlement mechanism with high speed suddenly comes to an "emergency stop". The WTO, a "chariot" carrying the orderly development of Global trade, not only hesitates, but also shows a trend of disintegration. On May 28, 2019, Peter Van den bossche, the outgoing member of the WTO Appellate Body, delivered a farewell speech, leaving behind a rather tragic and helpless "cruel words." history will not forgive those who let the WTO dispute settlement mechanism collapse! " Compared with the evaluation of Claus Dieter ehlermann, the first member of the appeals body in 2003, "the achievement of DSU is a remarkable achievement, almost a miracle." People can not help but have a sense of separation from the rest of the world. On Zeng geometric day, WTO law and its research are in the Ascendant: it, together with the domestic legal system and the domestic constitution, constitutes the internal and external guarantee to restrict the abuse of economic regulation power by the government; it is not satisfied with the emerging, marginal and independent discipline positioning, and it is the leader in the whole international law research. To a great extent, the foundation of its hegemony comes from the smooth operation of WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The logical and profound analysis of the Appellate Body report has its own aura of legitimacy, which has made great contributions to the development and expansion of the WTO system. For a long time, with the help of positivism, policy orientation, cross-border legal process, economic analysis law, critical law, international relations and international law, as well as social law and other research methods, international economic law scholars have focused on the institutional research of WTO, immersed in terms of interpretation, value goal means selection, institutional capacity comparison, social welfare maximization, power structure disclosure and even institutional importance Structure and so on, but intentionally or unintentionally ignore such an obvious fact - the interaction between human and system. As a master of studying WTO law, Guo Hua, a teacher of China, took a unique approach in the jungle reappearance? 》The book focuses on the analysis of human beings and draws a shocking conclusion: the reason why the WTO dispute settlement mechanism has been severely damaged is that it is too successful, and the key factor to cause the institutional crisis is that the important figures of important countries (such as the United States trade representative) forcefully stop the WTO "chariot" with their own efforts based on "personal resentment". Frankly speaking, for those who understand the legitimacy of WTO with the help of international system theory and attach great importance to the study of system, at first sight, they can't help but be skeptical. Guohua teachers are free and easy-going, open-minded, and often have amazing words, but they are not subject to "plausible folk theory"? Perplexed, join the current popular "conspiracy theory" and "throwing pot competition"! When you calm down, read carefully and appreciate carefully, surprises come one after another. As the author said, this book "talks about professional matters, using storytelling techniques.". The "academic prose style" of "saying things by people" and "by things" not only makes the boring legal system inflamed, but also makes the academic research of serious crisis become interesting. This book does not neglect the study of institution, but reveals the simple common sense of human behavior through describing and analyzing human behavior between institutions. Based on the respect for the sovereignty of the members, in order to prevent the rigidity of the system, the WTO dispute settlement mechanism means to leave blank at the design time. As a result, it can not only prosper with the active participation of the members of the Appellate Body represented by the "seven sages", but also decline with the tireless destruction of the US trade representative. In addition to the ups and downs of the story, the plot turns back thousands of times, the research pulse of "system + human" in this book can be seen consciously. Jungle reappearance? 》Although a book is small, its theory is large. It not only enlivens the WTO system, but also enriches the image of the characters. The theory and practice of this book are deeply integrated, and learning and talent complement each other. It is intended to be from a high position and elaborate. The content is simple and the language is sharp and humorous. No matter what the fate of the appellate body is, with this biography, the WTO dispute settlement mechanism can stand proudly, "the world bears me, not me.".