The WTO Secretariat plays an important role in supporting the activities of the WTO membership. This extends to dispute settlement. This paper addresses the question whether the Secretariat may have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the current crisis in the WTO dispute settlement system as has been suggested by some observers. The role of the WTO Secretariat in WTO disputes cannot be underestimated and merits more attention than has been given to it. It would be wrong to blame the Appellate Body crisis on the Secretariat but to ignore its role in the functioning of the WTO dispute settlement system would not be correct either. My focus in this paper is on two related problems that received some attention in WTO reform debates: its role in advising panels and the Appellate Body on legal issues; and its role as ‘invisible experts’ on non‐legal issues such as the assessment of economic arguments and econometric evidence. In particular in the area of providing economic expert advice, there appears to be a problem of legitimacy and due process as a result of the non‐transparent role played by the WTO Secretariat.

中文翻译：

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世贸组织秘书处在世贸组织争端中的作用-沉默的证人还是鬼魂专家？

世贸组织秘书处在支持世贸组织成员的活动方面发挥着重要作用。这扩展到争端解决。如一些观察员所建议的那样，本文件解决了秘书处是否可能直接或间接地为世贸组织争端解决系统中的当前危机做出了贡献的问题。不能低估世贸组织秘书处在世贸组织争端中的作用，值得给予比以往更多的关注。将上诉机构的危机归咎于秘书处是错误的，但是忽视其在世贸组织争端解决系统的运作中的作用也不是正确的。我在本文中的重点是在WTO改革辩论中引起关注的两个相关问题：其在法律咨询小组和上诉机构中的咨询作用；以及它在非法律问题（例如经济论证和计量经济学证据的评估）上作为“隐形专家”的作用。特别是在提供经济专家建议方面，由于世贸组织秘书处所发挥的不透明作用，似乎存在合法性和正当程序问题。