This incisive book provides a comprehensive overview of the WTO dispute settlement practice from 1995 up until the present day, illustrating the need for it to be resurrected from its current state of crisis.

By inquiring into the current set-up of WTO adjudication system, the book explores to what extent its original intent has been followed in practice. Its empirical analysis of decades of data regarding the number, duration, and subject matter of dispute adjudications, as well as the frequency of implemented or non-implemented settlements, illuminates the effectiveness of the system and highlights the issues that have led to the WTO's present predicament. Petros C. Mavroidis employs these findings to build a case for the urgent reform of the WTO dispute settlement system by virtue of its accomplishments. He then concludes with a proposal for a reinvigorated 'Dispute Settlement Understanding 2.0'.

The WTO Dispute Settlement System will prove an essential read for students and scholars of WTO law, as well as lawyers, political scientists, and policy-oriented economists interested in the WTO dispute settlement system. Its accessible evaluation of the rationale and practice of key provisions of the adjudication regime will also be of benefit to practicing attorneys.

'This book, by a leading WTO legal scholar and the favourite co-author of many American and European trade economists, will be indispensable reading for researchers and practitioners of international trade.'
– André Sapir, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

'Professor Mavroidis adds yet another masterly contribution to his series of WTO Law analyses. As previous books, it lays out the legal texts and case law in great detail, and perceptively discusses the economic rationale of the law. This book is incomparably richer than any other text on WTO dispute settlement.'
– Henrik Horn, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Sweden

'In this masterful book, Petros Mavroidis blends an elegant combination of prose, data and law to explore just how the WTO dispute system worked, how it failed, and why it needs to be fixed.'
– Chad Bown, Peterson Institute for International Economics, US

Petros C. Mavroidis, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Foreign and Comparative Law, Columbia Law School, US.