The WTO Dispute Settlement System 1995–2010: Some Descriptive Statistics

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the busiest state to state court nowadays. It is a rarity in international relations since it includes compulsory third-party adjudication and a permanent second instance court. This paper aims to shed light on the actual use of the system by WTO Members. We divide WTO Members into five distinct groups and evaluate their participation in terms of which agreements they invoke as legal benchmark to challenge practices by other WTO Members, the identity of panelists chosen, their percentage of wins and defeats, etc. The time span for our statistical observations extends from the advent of the WTO 1995 to end of 2010.