Human Rights and WTO Law: From Conflict to Coordination

WTO law has become the main legal system in International Economic Law dealing with an ever growing number of subjects. At the same time there is a continous pressure to expand the coverage of this field of law even more. Areas of International Law have been traditionally very distant from International Economic Law are now being linked to WTO law. One of the most challenging linkages regards the field of human rights.This article shows that this linkage of trade law with human rights law has many faces. Some of these aspects will probably become ever more important in the next years, others which are very much emphasized these days are probably blind alleys.A positive or a negative approach can be adopted in this field. According to the first approach trade law can be used to further the respect for human rights. As it is known, the European Union has given pivotal contributions in the development of this concept making the respect for human rights, democratic values and – lately – good governance a requisite for economic cooperation and aid. In this area, the European Union is taking a lead for many states and international organizations involved in international development cooperation.The negative perspective examines to which extend human rights aspects are restricting the reach of WTO law or, more generally, should be taken into consideration in interpreting WTO law. This article evidences that international human rights norms are not a subsystem to WTO law and that these norms do not form part of the applicable law within the WTO dispute settlement system as some authors have been suggesting recently. It appears also to be rather unrealistic that the WTO could become a human rights organization as others are retaining as desirable.At first sight, the consequence of this situation will be the following: with human rights law and international trade law becoming ever more detailed, conflicts between both areas of international law should become more widespread. This articles demonstrates that these conflicts can be avoided. There is an obligation of both the human rights community and the international trade community to approach each other.