Resorting to Article 25 of the DSU to Overcome the WTO Crisis on the Appellate Body: The EU Proposal for an Interim Appeal Arbitration

At midnight of 10 December 2019, the WTO Appellate Body ceased to be operational, as the US has been vetoing since May 2016 the selections of the members of the World Trade Court. The WTO dispute settlement system hence risks the paralysis -a scenario that could materialize should the losing party of a panel report appeal the latter “into the void,” i.e. before an Appellate Body with less than three judges. In response to this event, the European Union is developing an articulated approach to guarantee a rule-based international trade system and the principle of cooperation as the pillars of the governance of the global economy. One element of the EU approach is the initiative for an interim appeal arbitration procedure based on Article 25 of the DSU, and the present work is devoted to the analysis of this contingency remedy.