See You in Geneva? Legal (Mis)Representations of the Trading System

Abstract

When officials from different countries disagree about trade policy, some say ‘see you in Geneva!’ meaning ‘see you in court!’ In offering a pluralist alternative to this centralism of analysts and practitioners, I represent the World Trade Organization (WTO) not as a coercive court used for enforcement but as a site for the elaboration of a system of ‘law’ that arises from and provides a framework for self-directed human interaction. Trade law is shaped in the shadow of bargaining. I contrast this legal representation with ‘legalization’ to show the contribution it makes to constructivist international theory. An empirical probe in the contentious domain of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) asks about the relative importance of the few formal SPS ‘disputes’ compared with other ways that WTO law affects global food safety. A discussion of how the trading system responded to ‘mad cow disease’ (BSE) provides empirical confirmation of pluralist insights. Far from being only in Geneva, trade law is everywhere.