The WTO legal system: Sources of law

The rapidly expanding law of the World Trade Organization is based on the texts of the WTO Agreements, but increasingly WTO dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body look to the larger field of public international law in deciding cases. Virtually all of the sources of law in Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice have served, in varying degrees, as sources of law in the WTO. The authors examine the development and significance of each of these sources of law in WTO jurisprudence.