{"id":1576,"date":"2004-07-01T09:22:12","date_gmt":"2004-07-01T13:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/site\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2011-04-05T22:55:17","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T02:55:17","slug":"issue_45-2_alemanno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/ilj\/2004\/07\/issue_45-2_alemanno\/","title":{"rendered":"Judicial Enforcement of the WTO \u201cHormones\u201d Ruling Within the European Community: Toward EC Liability for the Non-Implementation of WTO Dispute Settlement Decisions?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>On September  30, 2003, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) contemplated the possibility of holding the European Community liable for the non-implementation of World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement  Body (DSB) decisions. The implications of the ECJ\u2019s reasoning in these  judgments could be revolutionary not only for the EC legal order, but also for the legal systems of all WTO members. To date, no court of a WTO member state has recognized a private party\u2019s right to rely on DSB rulings to initiate a claim of liability against a member state. Since WTO rules lack direct effect, member states typically prevent private parties from invoking DSB rulings before domestic courts. Hence private business operators are barred from recovering the damages suffered from non-compliance with DSB rulings.<\/p>\n<p>The case at hand arose when a French meat trading company, Biret International, and  its holding company, Etablissement Biret et Cie SA, filed actions before  the Court of First Instance (CFI) of the European Communities seeking  compensation for damages allegedly suffered as a result of the adoption  and continuing enforcement of an EC ban on hormone-treated beef. The ban  had already been condemned by the WTO in the well-known <em>Beef  Hormones<\/em> cases. Biret, relying on WTO rulings in the <em>Beef  Hormones<\/em> cases, asked the court to hold the European Community  liable for failing to implement the decision within the prescribed  period of time. In line with the ECJ\u2019s longstanding tradition of denying  the direct effect of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and  WTO law, the CFI rejected the claim on the ground that neither WTO  agreements nor rulings could create rights for private individuals. In  an appeal of this judgment, the ECJ dismissed the action on factual  grounds, but did not rule that the plaintiff\u2019s claim was unfounded. In  this way, the ECJ left open the possibility that a WTO dispute  settlement ruling could provide grounds for imposing liability on the  European Community.<\/p>\n<p>The objective of this Recent Development is  to provide the reader with an analysis of the <em>Biret<\/em> judgments  and their possible legal implications. Part I provides the necessary framework to understand the legal context underlying the <em>Biret<\/em> judgments. The Part briefly discusses the direct effect of WTO law, the  functioning of the WTO dispute settlement system, the (non-) role of private parties, and the historical background of the <em>Beef Hormones<\/em> cases. Part II examines the <em>Biret<\/em> judgments by the CFI and the ECJ, and also the opinion of Advocate General Alber. Part III focuses on the legal implications of the <em>Biret<\/em> cases and their potential impact on the EC legal order and on other WTO member countries.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The objective of this Recent Development is  to provide the reader with an analysis of the <em>Biret<\/em> judgments  and their possible legal 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