Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law



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Concluding Comments

This chapter has sought to trace the ways in which WTO norms - both the provisions of its constituent treaties and more generally the principles and procedural norms being developed by its dispute settlement bodies - are increasingly affecting and being taken into account in EU governance, including by its legislative and judicial bodies. The ways in which Member States and EU institutional actors consider themselves bound to observe the provisions of WTO agreements, and the standards and norms to which those instruments refer, are more complex and subtle than the debates on direct effect and justiciability can capture. The reciprocal influence of the processes taking place in the context of the WTO, in particular encouragement for the multilateral negotiation and development of internationally agreed standards and for practices of dialogue and consultation before the adoption of trade-restrictive action, may provide some (albeit slight) cause for optimism in the face of fears about the growth of a free trade leviathan which increasingly restricts the policy choices not only of individual states, but also of the European Union itself.


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