The recent Seals case at the WTO exposed a phenomenon long hovering on the horizon: national measures enacted for purposes which, in operation, conflict with one another. This essay is an inquiry into the nature of such measures. It explains why legal tests germane to single-purpose measures cannot (and should not) be transposed onto complex, contradictory multi-purpose ones. The essay advocates for relinquishment of some old ideas of the Appellate Body, and for the development of fresh ones.
Global Trade and Customs Journal