Sivan is a member of the European Research Council Project on the Effectiveness of International Courts and a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Law, where she was awarded a full PhD Fellowship. Her empirical dissertation proposes a methodological framework for analyzing the effectiveness of the WTO Dispute Settlement System in light of its multiple goals, their interrelations and shifting nature, while borrowing analytical tools developed in Organizational Theory. In the summer of 2012 Sivan was a Visiting Scholar at the WTO. Earlier that year she also participated in the WTO internship program as a legal intern at the Legal Affairs Division. Prior to her doctoral studies, Sivan received an LL.M with honors from Northwestern University, an LL.M magna cum laude in Public and International Law from Tel Aviv University, and an LL.B Laws magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University.
Research Project
The World Trade Court and its Audiences: A Discursive Analysis of WTO Disputes Involving Non-Trade Societal Values
The qualitative empirical research aims to investigate the multiple audiences, beyond states, that affect judicial behavior at the international level, and the legal discourse in which international courts engage in order to maintain their legitimacy among growing circles of audiences in an era of increasing judicial power in global governance. To these ends, the research focuses on the mandatory inter-state dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The research takes a case-study approach through which an in-depth analysis of WTO disputes is carried out, with particular emphasis on a growing category of politically sensitive disputes that goes beyond the core trade mandate of the WTO and involves societal values such as health and environment. The case-study analysis is grounded in empirical data gathered through interviews with WTO practitioners involved in the work of the WTO dispute settlement system, thereby exploring the world of international adjudication as it is experienced by those who form part of it.