The conflict between the WTO system and human rights is typically presented as a technical problem, chiefly attributable to the parallel development of the two regimes. To resolve conflicts between the two fields, commentators propose a broader definition of 'norm conflict'. This article advances a different account of the issue. It argues that contrary to the prevailing assumption, the conflict between the WTO and human rights is not primarily technical in nature. The conflict fundamentally arises from deliberate policy choices, and it is so systemic that it cannot be adequately addressed through judicial techniques of conflict resolution. The problem is not one of specific WTO rules directly clashing with human rights norms; it is rather the WTO as a system undermining human rights because its rules are disjoined not only from human rights values but also from the organisation 's own goals. Therefore, without fresh political negotiations, there is only so much that can be done at the judicial level to ensure coherence between the two fields no matter how liberally pertinent terms are defined.
↧