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Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?

Includes bibliographical references.

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Main Author: Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
Other Authors: Lehmann, Karin
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Commercial Law 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
author2 Lehmann, Karin
author_browse Lehmann, Karin
Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
author_facet Lehmann, Karin
Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
author_sort Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12892
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:56.645Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Commercial Law
publisherStr Department of Commercial Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12892 Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)? Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha Lehmann, Karin International Trade Law Includes bibliographical references. The objective of the research is to assess the strength of a potential exception available to the EU under Article XX (a) of the GATT. This is not the first time that issues to do with animal welfare are being challenged at the WTO dispute settlement system. Animal welfare issues have been at the centre of conflicts from the times of the GATT through to the creation of the WTO. For example, in 1993 a dispute arose when the U.S. adopted a law known as the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act which established standards of harvesting tuna using purse seine nets to prevent the unnecessary killing of dolphins. This law entailed that if a country exporting to the U.S. did not meet the standards as specified in the law, the tuna would be embargoed. The Panel ruled against the U.S although the panel report was never adopted because under the old GATT regime, a decision could be blocked by a member state that was unhappy with the decision and the U.S. blocked its adoption. This scenario is no longer possible because under the WTO because of the negative consensus principle. Further, in 1997, under the United States Endangered Act of 1973, the U.S. imposed a ban on the importation of certain shrimp and shrimp products that were not caught using turtle excluding devices (TED)in their nets when fishing in areas where there a significant likelihood of encountering sea turtles. Although the two cases were brought under Article XX (b) exception, they are still important for the seals case because the main reason the products were banned was because the countries who adopted the bans did not subscribe to the methods used in the hunting which raised concerns in their countries. Seals have also come under contention before when in 1983 the EU banned products from ‘whitecoats’ and bluebacks’ a species of seals also known as harp and hooded seals respectively that have not yet been weaned as a result of concerns over their conservation status. The current seal dispute is therefore important for two reasons. Firstly the study is ofparticular importance because the moral exception under GATT is rarely invoked. It will be the third dispute under the GATT specifically to invoke the public morals exception and the second dispute under the WTO. So there has not been a lot of adjudication on the exception. Secondly, it is the first time that a dispute panel at the WTO is adjudicating upon a trade measure adopted for the protection of animal welfare by a Member State purely based on moral beliefs and indignation. 2015-05-27T04:06:40Z 2015-05-27T04:06:40Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12892 eng application/pdf Department of Commercial Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle International Trade Law
Nsanta-Kalimukwa, Natasha
Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
title_full Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
title_fullStr Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
title_full_unstemmed Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
title_short Trade liberalisation vs public morality : can the European Union seal ban be justified under the GATT Article XX (a)?
title_sort trade liberalisation vs public morality can the european union seal ban be justified under the gatt article xx a
topic International Trade Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12892
work_keys_str_mv AT nsantakalimukwanatasha tradeliberalisationvspublicmoralitycantheeuropeanunionsealbanbejustifiedunderthegattarticlexxa