Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho Recent documents in Sungjoon Cho en-us Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:31:13 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/53 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/53 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:47:18 PDT Sungjoon Cho International Law http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/52 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/52 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:00:09 PDT This article provides a concise history of the Doha Round negotiation, analyzes its deadlock and offers some suggestions for a successful deal. The article observes that the nearly decade long negotiational stalemate is symptomatic of the diametrically opposed beliefs on the nature of the Round between developed and developing countries. While developed countries appear to be increasingly oblivious of Doha's exigency, i.e., as a "development" round, developing countries vehemently condemn the developed countries' narrow commercial focus on the Doha Round talks. It will not be easy to untie this Gordian knot since both Worlds tend to think that no deal is better than a bad deal. This political dilemma notwithstanding, the current global economic crisis has been a clarion call for a successful Doha deal. Ironically, the widespread protectionist reactions from both developed and developing countries alike have highlighted the vital importance of a well-operating multilateral trading system. The article concludes that the U.S. must not fail to exercise its due leadership in crystallizing such momentum into a concrete outcome, as it did in the interwar period. Sungjoon Cho International Law International Trade http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/51 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/51 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:33:43 PDT Global Constitutional LawmakingAbstractThis article identifies a nascent phenomenon of "global constitutional lawmaking" in a recent WTO jurisprudence which struck down a certain calculative methodology ("zeroing") in the antidumping area. The article interprets the Appellate Body's uncharacteristic anti-zeroing hermeneutics, which departs from a traditional treaty interpretation under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the past pro-zeroing GATT case law, as a "constitutional" turn of the WTO. The article argues that a positivist, inter-governmental mode of thinking, as is prevalent in other international organizations such as the United Nations, cannot fully expound this phenomenon. Critically, this turn originates from bold ideas which envision, and thus "constitute," new institutional meaning and possibilities within the WTO, which are anchored firmly by a discernible purpose of cabining trade distortive/restrictive consequences from the use of zeroing which have long been left unchecked. The legitimacy (sustainability) of such constitutional lawmaking can be secured not only by exogenous factors such as domestic political support but also by endogenous factors such as normative recognition by the domestic legal system ("internalization). Sungjoon Cho Constitutional Law International Law International Trade Politics http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/50 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/50 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:14:27 PDT Sungjoon Cho International Trade http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/49 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/49 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:16:23 PST An Identity Crisis of International Organizations Abstract International organizations (IOs) are ubiquitous. More than two hundred IOs touch our everyday lives, ranging banking to flu-shots. However, conventional political scientists seldom pay sufficient attention to IOs which they thoroughly deserve given their contemporary prominence. Because conventional international relations (IR) theories consider IOs as mere passive machineries, they hardly offer a satisfactory explanation on a distinctive mode of IOs' institutional dynamic, in which a specific IO, as a separate and autonomous organic entity, grows, evolves and eventually makes sense of its own existence. This Essay offers a novel perspective which attempts to overcome the aforementioned deficiency in conventional IR theories. Drawing on the "identity theory" established by Erik Erikson, this new perspective captures an IO's institutional development in which one can witness a dynamic process of its identity crisis and identity formation. The Essay argues that based on its autonomy qua organization, not merely as an instrument of states, an IO forms its organizational identity as it experiences an "identity crisis" in a similar way in which a human individual does. An IO acquires its organizational identity only after it achieves a necessary level of institutional maturity as a result of incessant interactions and communications with its environment (society). The Essay applies this theoretical framework to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Sungjoon Cho International Law International Trade Law and Society http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/48 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/48 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:25:26 PST The World Trade Constitutional Court Sungjoon Cho Abstract Although a court, as a judicial organ, usually fulfils its mission by resolving specific disputes brought to it, it occasionally goes beyond this simple dispute-resolving function and more actively engages in building policies which define, and "constitute," the very polity to which the court belongs, as was seen in Brown v. Board of Education. If this "constitutional adjudication" is an integral function of any domestic high court, could (and should) an international tribunal, in particular the World Trade Organization (WTO) tribunal, also play such a distinctive role? This paper contends that the WTO tribunal has in fact assumed such role by having recently struck down a hoary antidumping practice called "zeroing" which tends to inflate dumping margins and thus is a central vehicle for contingent protection embedded in the antidumping mechanism. The paper observes that the recent proliferation of antidumping measures as a new protectionist instrument has motivated the AB's hermeneutical departure from the past interpretation which had endorsed the practice. This, it argues, is a "constitutional" turn of the WTO which a positivist, inter-governmental mode of thinking, as is prevalent in other international organizations such as the United Nations, cannot fully expound. Critically, this turn originates from bold ideas which envision, and thus "constitute," new institutional meaning and possibilities within the WTO. In other words, the AB's exegesis is anchored firmly by a discernible purpose of cabining trade distortive/restrictive consequences from the use of zeroing which have long been left unchecked. Finally, WTO members, the paper maintains, must preserve the anti-zeroing jurisprudence as constitutional norms in the absence of extraordinary circumstances tantamount to a constitutional amendment. Sungjoon Cho Dispute Resolution International Law International Trade Politics http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/47 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/47 Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:22:15 PST Sungjoon Cho http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/45 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/45 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:21:00 PDT Toward an Identity Theory of International Organizations AbstractToday, we live in an era of international organizations (IOs). With more than two hundred IOs existing, they touch our everyday lives, ranging from air travel to flu shots. Such paramount significance notwithstanding, conventional international relations (IR) theories, such as realism, have failed to take IOs seriously. Conventional IR scholars view an IO as nothing but passive machinery created and controlled by states for their functional need. Under this position, while an IO may facilitate inter-state cooperation and reduce transaction costs, it would never have a life of its own. Conventional IR theories seldom offer a satisfactory explanation on a distinctive mode of institutional dynamics of an IO itself in which a specific IO, as a separate and autonomous organic entity, grows, evolves and eventually makes sense of its own existence. This is an unfortunate deficiency in light of ever-increasing significance of IOs in the contemporary world.In this Essay, I offer a novel perspective which attempts to overcome the aforementioned deficiency. Drawing on the "identity theory" established by Erik Erikson, this new perspective captures an IO's institutional development in which a dynamic process of the formation of its unique identity unfolds. Based on its autonomy qua organization, not merely as an instrument of states, an IO forms its organizational identity as it experiences an "identity crisis" in a similar way in which a human individual does. States create an IO to implement a certain function. Thus, an IO holds a default purpose which its creators (states) have programmed into it. However, an IO's retention of such programmed purpose results from a mere identification with its creators, not from the formation of its genuine identity which is formed at a subsequent stage. An IO's organizational identity is formed only after it achieves a necessary level of institutional maturity as a result of incessant interactions and communications with its environment (society). This Essay also applies the theory of IOs' identity formation to the World Trade Organization (WTO). It demonstrates how the old identification of the WTO's predecessor, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), with a narrow meaning of trade confronted new external challenges involving non-trade values, such as protection of the environment and human health. It argues that the WTO's identity formation is to strike an institutional equilibrium between traditional trade values and these non-trade values. Sungjoon Cho International Law International Trade Organizations http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/44 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/44 Fri, 23 May 2008 14:33:22 PDT Sungjoon Cho International Trade http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/43 http://works.bepress.com/sungjoon_cho/43 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:51:15 PST Sungjoon Cho