Searching for the Perfect Solution: International Dispute Resolution and the New World Trade Organization

This Note discusses the effects of the Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round on resolving international trade disputes. Through a comparison of the old GATT system of dispute resolution and the new system created by the World Trade Organization, this Note highlights some of GATT\u27s major flaws and analyzes the WTO\u27s attempts to fix these flaws. The creation of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, in particular, seeks to fix problems such as Contracting Parties\u27 lack of compliance by interjecting principles of legalism into an arena historically guided by principles of diplomacy and compromise. An analysis of this new dispute resolution mechanism as applied to the banana wars, however, concludes that while many changes have been made to improve the international dispute resolution process, little has been done to ensure just results