• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.403-431
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• 2011

The environmental issues including domestic measures to protect public life or health are generally easy to bring the tension between the WTO and its member countries. The standard of review, whether de novo review, total deference, or somewhere in between, is largely important in the WTO's adjudicating mechanism because it is closely related to the appropriate balance of power between sovereign nations and the WTO: The multilateral trading regime, through the proper standard of review, could harmoniously operated without interest conflicts among the member countries and at the same time between the WTO and the member countries. Irrespective the important function of the standard of review in the WTO judicial system, applicable standard of review has not been established in the current SPS Agreement. Furthermore, the nature of the SPS Agreement related in scientific factors, such as scientific experiment, data and assessment prevents the WTO's panel from applying consistent standard of review. Considering the judicial demand for the moderate treatment of the case under the SPS Agreement, this paper explores appropriate standard of review applicable the SPS-related environmental measures, particularly, by analysing the recent SPS-related dispute, US-Hormones Suspension.