Infancy: Reflections on the origins of legalisation in the GATT

It can be informative to look back on the past and trace how one has come to the present stage. ‘Taking stock’ does not stem from any idle nostalgia, but may help in preparing for the future. Now, more than sixty-five years after the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was launched, some old experts are taking time to reflect on the development of this trade system and its outgrowth, the WTO, to look more particularly at the rule of law and the role played by lawyers since the beginning. The GATT and I were young together, and so my personal story is intertwined with the institutional history of the first global multilateral trading system in the world’s history. Indeed my first connection stems from three years as a staff member of the Secretariat beginning in 1956. Also, after joining what was then the European Community (EC) Commission in January 1959, I remained directly involved in GATT diplomacy, negotiation and conflict settlement until towards the end of the 1980s.