PhD thesis defence by Ahhyun Ryu
This dissertation critiques the heavily text-centric mode of inquiry prevalent in existing interpretations of WTO security exceptions, and proposes a historical method that focuses more on the role and nature of these provisions. Recently, WTO panels have been called upon to interpret security exceptions, a controversial provision that allows a WTO Member to take any action ‘which it considers’ necessary to protect its essential security interests. At the centre of intense interpretative struggle is the meaning of the phrase ‘which it considers’. Some construe this phrase as granting unfettered discretion to the invoking state, while others try to minimise the modifying scope of this phrase. This dissertation critiques both arguments as text-centric, and claims that the conundrum of ‘which it considers’ cannot be solved by a microscopic study of the text. Instead, it calls for an organic and contextual approach, which takes the treaty text out of its clinical isolation and places the text in its historical background. The mode of historical inquiry adopted in this dissertation operates on two levels. First, it deconstructs the seemingly fixed appearance of treaty terms by highlighting their historicity and contingency. This dissertation traces the family tree of security exceptions all the way back to the 19th-century commercial treaties, to find that the phrase ‘which it considers’ is boilerplate language, a legal jargon devoid of specific meaning that has been produced through a process of rote usage and encrustation. Second, this dissertation reconstructs the role and nature of security exceptions by examining how they have been historically formed, through a dynamic process of interaction between different actors. In each chapter, the text of security exceptions, drawn from 19th and 20th-century commercial treaties, the ITO Charter, and GATT 1947, are situated and understood against their socio-political-economic backgrounds. Overall, the dissertation demonstrates that a treaty text is not a timeless, objective conveyor of truth, but a value-laden construct reflecting different policy choices in myriad historical contexts.
To follow this thesis defence, please register using the button below. A Zoom link will be shared upon registration.