earticle

영어

With a massive movement towards RTAs since the early 1990s, scholars have paid much attention on the issue of overlapping of jurisdiction between the dispute settlements of the WTO and of the RTAs. From the case study, we can find that the overlapping of jurisdiction is likely not only to impose substantive legal costs on the defendant party but also to lead to conflict decisions, thereby undermining the security and predictability of the multilateral trading system. With the fear of incoherent jurisprudence and the threat to multilateral trading system, this article tries to find an appropriate solution to deal with the overlapping of jurisdiction. In order to find an appropriate solution for the overlapping of jurisdiction, this article examined the application of some general principles such as Res Judicata or Lis Alibi Pendens, Comity or estoppel and Forum Conveniens and Forum non Conveniens. However, as a result of the strict conditions for their application, these principles seem to be difficult to be applied to deal with the overlapping of jurisdiction. A number of treaties provides for the choice of a form clause and the exclusive clause while setting up RTAs. The potential method for WTO DSB to deal with the jurisdictional overlapping is to decline to excise jurisdiction by using the jurisdiction exclusive clause contained in the RTAs.