Developing a multi-dimensional standard of legitimacy for the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system

The goal of this dissertation is to show how some of the problems of legitimacy faced by the WTO in the 21st century have been addressed through the increasing utilization, success, and legitimacy of its dispute settlement mechanism and how this process has resulted in what this dissertation calls: a multi-dimensional standard of legitimacy. Integral to this new standard of legitimacy is increased participation of developing countries. The dissertation analyzes the notion of legitimacy and its sources in contemporary international law and within the context of globalization. Specifically, it analyzes three perspectives of legitimacy that work in tandem: (1) source based legitimacy, (2) procedure based legitimacy, and (3) result based legitimacy. The findings of this complex model of legitimacy will be supplemented and expanded through interviews with public officials of nineteen WTO Members. The purpose of these interviews was to provide a comprehensive analysis of the notion of legitimacy that cannot readily be ascertainable through statistical data.