GATT Disputes

As the types and complexity of dispute settlement procedures increased, so did the length of GATT dispute settlement reports. The first reports were usually very short and directly addressed the matter at issue without exhaustively summarizing the arguments by the parties and the evidentiary elements. During the 1950s, some reports were limited to a single page.

As the procedures evolved over the years, the length of the reports, including the number of pages containing legal reasoning, also began to grow. Yet, apart from the very first years of GATT disputes, on average the pages of legal reasoning did not exceed half of the length of the reports.