The World Trade Organization should revamp the way it resolves disagreements among its 152 members by making its appellate body members full time, said Yasuhei Taniguchi, a 1964 Cornell Law School graduate, in a keynote speech at the Berger/Cornell International Law Journal 2008 symposium April 4.

The WTO also should make its appellate body and panel independent and even change the body's name--to the World Trade Court, said Taniguchi.

"Something should be done in order to rescue the panel and appellate body as well as the respective secretariat from being flooded with papers," said Taniguchi, who recently retired from the WTO's appellate body after hearing a stunning 53 appeals during his eight-year tenure.

Some of the world's most far-reaching trade disputes are settled by the WTO's seven legal experts allowed to work only part time, as they plow through thousands of pages of documentation under severe, legally imposed time constraints. About 80 people attended the public symposium, including five of seven legal experts who will serve as members of the WTO Appellate Body starting in June 2008. Most of the top U.S. scholars in WTO law also attended the symposium.

The two-day event offered a rare inside look at how the world's largest trade organization settles disagreements, said symposium organizer John J. Barceló III, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law.

"These decisions deal with very important matters of government policy in the trade field, said Barceló, director of Cornell Law's Berger International Legal Studies Program, which sponsored the symposium. "There's really nothing quite like it anywhere else in the international relations system. This is an example of an extraordinarily successful and innovative development in the rule of law in international relations. And it only dates from 1995, so it's really very new."

While the WTO Appellate Body continues to function well, said Taniguchi, the group's current round of policy talks, known as the Doha Round, is at a stalemate.

"The WTO system has brought about a revolutionary change to the world trade," said Taniguchi, professor of law at Senshu University Law School (after 39 years at Kyoto University) and an expert on procedural law. "A small country like Antigua can now sue such an economic and political giant as the United States and win. The rule of law has been finally brought to the international community."

Cornell law student Peter Milligan says students especially appreciated the opportunity to speak with luminaries in the field of international and procedural law.

"The Appellate Body members are the most esteemed jurists in the world," said Milligan, lead organizer for the Cornell International Law Journal. "Because there's so much scrutiny on each person appointed, they truly have to be the highest caliber jurist available."

The Berger International Legal Studies Program supports an extensive speaker and conference program, faculty research, a summer comparative law institute at the Sorbonne in Paris, exchanges and dual degree programs with foreign law faculties, international moot court teams, and the Cornell International Law Journal. The Journal is one of the oldest and most prominent international law journals in the country, edited exclusively by students in the Law School's Juris Doctor and Master of Law degree programs. The journal will dedicate a future issue to papers generated at the symposium.

Susan Kelley is a freelance writer for the Cornell Law School.