ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in the context of the WTO, the development of a body of precedent and its extensive use by all disputing members, make it a primary indicator of the growing authority of trade law and perhaps international economic law generally. It reviews the most important literature on precedent in international economic law, paying attention to its relation to the legitimacy and stability of the legal system. The chapter develops an empirical study of the use of precedent at the WTO. It examines the implications of precedent for how we think about the place of law in global politics and how we study law's influence on global political and economic activity. The ongoing precedential development of international law raises the question of whether the mechanisms designed to facilitate state interdependence may also create some of the rules by which states interact.
