The Proliferation of Disputes, Dispute Settlement Procedures and Respect for the Rule of Law

摘要

It is truly a great pleasure for me to be here with you this evening. I must admit, however, that I feel a little bit like the lawyer who comes home late one evening totally drunk. His wife meets him at the door and screams, 'what have you to say for yourself?' He looks at her in total innocence and mumbles: 'I don't really have anything to say, but I would be pleased to entertain questions'. Unlike the lawyer in this story, I attribute my problem not to alcohol but to the topic assigned to me, 'The proliferation of disputes, dispute settlement procedures and respect for the rule of law'. Your colloquium organisers very kindly gave me this broad topic to allow me to speak about anything I wanted to, and for that I am most grateful. But, of course, this broad topic creates its own problem: what specifically to speak about.