The Dialogue Between Judges and Experts in the EU and the WTO

Abstract

While the entry of science into the courtroom is not an entirely new phenomenon, the integration of scientific knowledge into the international courts legal environment is a more recent one. Today not only the outcomes of criminal, paternity and civil liability cases may turn on scientific evidence, but also those of major international trade disputes may depend on the scientific element. But how a judge, by definition a non scientist, may conduct an assessment on whether a measure is scientifically supported? Which is the level of intensity of the scrutiny that this judge may exert over the risk regulation being reviewed? These questions are currently sources of endlessly controversy in the international legal arena and at the centre of some international trade disputes. 

Their answers are relevant to the extent they determine not only the immediate outcome of some legal disputes, but also how much regulatory autonomy WTO and EU Members enjoy in regulating to protect the health of their people. This chapter, after analyzing the role played by expertise in the judicial review of science-based measures in both legal systems, formulates some proposals aimed at reorienting the role of the WTO and EU judicial bodies in scientific disputes.

Keywords

EU law, WTO law, Experts, Dialogue, Judicial Review, Science

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