In many domestic legal systems, the highest court has a special role in interpreting the constitutional or other foundational documents of the society. In the arena of international law there is no single high court and no rule of stare decisis—no rule of precedent. However, the U.S. is alleging that the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is treating its past rulings as binding precedent, and is blocking appointments of new judges to fill vacancies until the matter is resolved. In a new brief, Cato scholars Simon Lester and James Bacchus examine the U.S. objections to the use of previous legal judgments in new disputes, and offer some suggestions for how best to move forward on this issue.
If Congress can’t or won’t act, in the face of an ever-growing $22 trillion national debt that soon will bury us, can this Leviathan be, if not overturned, at least chipped away by the court?
