Judicial Lawmaking by Judicial Restraint? The Potential of Balancing in International Economic Law

Abstract

In the framework of this project, both the WTO dispute settlement system and international investment tribunals are portrayed as core actors in judicial lawmaking.1 By weaving international trade law and investment law on the roughly timbered looms of imperfect treaty law, they have proven to be successful creators of the fabrics of a world trade order and of investment protection standards, respectively. Such effective lawmaking, on the part of particular “regimes,” has the potential to increase the fragmentation of international law.

Dr. iur., Research Fellow, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. I wish to thank Armin von Bogdandy, Isabel Feichtner, Cornelia Janik, Stefan Kadelbach, Johannes Saurer and Ingo Venzke for inspiration, comments and criticism regarding earlier versions of this contribution.