Description
The paper investigates the different approaches of states to the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper will focus on the role of domestic ideas in determining states’ approach towards the MIC and the WTO DSM. It will be argued that trade officials are the carriers of specific programmatic beliefs that influence their approach towards the DSM. Specifically, the programmatic beliefs that will be examined will be on the different ideas that the European DG Trade and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) have of the WTO DSM.
One of the main contributions of the paper will be the further development of the study of ideas as drivers in international trade and international arbitration. If ideas have been used in the literature as a general term to indicate different level of abstract principles (e.g. worldviews, ideologies) or beliefs affecting political actions (e.g. Vivien A. Schmidt, 2008; Siles-Brügge, 2013; Goldstein, 2019), it is necessary to bring clarity and be more specific. For this paper, the term ‘idea’ will indicate that general category of abstract factors, and ‘programmatic beliefs’ as more specific kinds of ‘ideas’ that affect states in their approach to institutions. The paper will analyse the discourse around the creation around the MIC of the EU and China, examining how the international trade dispute settlement is changing according to a shift in domestic programmatic beliefs of its users, using process tracing as main method of inquiry.
