Dispelling the Chimera of 'Self-Contained Regimes' International Law and the WTO

International lawyers have in recent years expressed much uneaseabout the perceived fragmentation of their legal system. Intruth, however, international law has always been fragmentedwithout losing its ability to operate. A threat, rather, arisesfrom the ongoing proliferation of special regimes endowed withstrong institutional frameworks and an ability to set new internationalnorms. This expansion begs an uncomfortable question: What ifsuch – seemingly independent – entities were toclaim autonomy and challenge the validity of general internationallaw? A salient feature of this debate is the preoccupation with‘self-contained regimes’ and their status underinternational law. In a recent report to the International LawCommission, for instance, Martti Koskenniemi concluded thatno such regime can be created outside the scope of general internationallaw. Drawing on a particularly controversial example, this articletherefore reviews the law and practice of the World Trade Organizationto determine how that body has positioned itself in the debate.While its judiciary has recognized that the rules on world tradedo not exist in isolation of general international law, a closerlook at actual case law unveils a far more ambivalent picture.The chimera of self-contained regimes, in other words, is noteasily dispelled.