Absolutization of the Idea of Free Trade as a Path to Destructing the Multilateral Trading System

Abstract

The GATT text contains hundreds of commitments and only a few exemptions and exceptions. Since the establishment of the WTO, the same text became the intellectual basis of the organization. But this agreement is almost 80 years old. Th e situation is complicated by the fact that the discourse of current international law is outdated. Among key problems are the rigidity of the international rule-making process, the archaic nature of the rules of treaty interpretation, the diffi culties of amending outdated international treaties. In these conditions, enforcement authorities have come to the fore. They are the ones who set the vector of legal regulation today. An array of «spam» international law is beginning to take shape. States are losing control over treaties. There is another problem – the confusion of law and ethics. The normativity of law is being washed away. Th is is fraught with the loss of formal equality of states. This article analyzes the roots of the changes.