The importance of the institutional dimensions to international trade law over the last decades is brought to light in this volume of previously published articles. The collection focuses on the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most important institution in international trade, and includes a selection of key contributions to the field. The approach is multi-disciplinary, encompassing mostly law, but also political science and economics, and the issues addressed are significant and diverse: the overall legitimacy and effectiveness of the WTO, the relationship between legal and judicial branches of the WTO, the path to membership in the organization, the WTO’s institutional complex of councils, committees and panels, the role of the WTO secretariat, and the relationship between the WTO and regional trade frameworks. The combined strengths of the articles in the collection, which reveals a dynamic, multi-layered and complex institutional structure, make this volume of special importance to students and practitioners of international trade or international relations.
