论WTO对区域贸易安排的法律规制——从“软法”的角度

WTO's Legal Rulings on Regional Trade Arrangements——from the Perspective of “Soft Law"

随着区域贸易安排浪潮的兴起,协调WTO与区域贸易安排之间的关系成为国际法学界关注的焦点之一。WTO有关区域贸易安排的规定用语模糊,各成员国对规定的理解存在较大分歧,专家组、上诉机构对此采取回避的态度。从"软法"的角度来看,这些规定"硬度"较小,属于软法的范畴。这种"软法"的特性在诸多方面契合了实用主义法学的特征,故而,WTO在处理其与区域贸易安排的关系方面宜采取实用主义法学的进路。

As the development of the regional trade arrangements （ RTAs）, scholars of international law have paid their attention to the coordination of the relationship between WTO and RTAs. Since the WTO＇ s provisions on RTAs are ambiguous, many understanding divergences arise among Members, but the Panel and AB choose to avoid solving the problems in their rulings. From the perspective of ＂soft law＂, these provisions bear few characters of ＂hard law＂ but correspond to legal pragmatism. Therefore, WTO is suggested to cope with the relationship between WTO and RTAs in the way of legal pragmatism.