WTO negotiators meet academics - The negotiations on improvements of the WTO Dispute Settlement System

On 13-14 September 2002, the European University Institute in Florence sponsored - thanks to the financial support from British Petroleum (BP) - an international workshop on the current negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on improvements and clarifications of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The negotiating proposals submitted so far to the DSB in Special Session can be grouped into eight different categories.' This short conference report, written by the workshop organizer, begins with a brief introduction to the importance of the law of international organizations for improving the political and legal methods for the international prevention and settlement of disputes. Subsequently, the report summarizes the arguments made during the discussions on the various negotiating proposals, yet without summarizing the eight published conference reports and without disclosing the identity of WTO negotiators in order to respect the fact that their statements were made on a personal basis.