Does Strategic Ambiguity Have a Place in the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding?

The notion of strategic ambiguity is deemed by some as beneficial to the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). However, strategic ambiguity does not complement or support the rule based rationale that underpins the WTO Agreements as a whole. Analysis of the WTO DSU provisions indicate that it was intended to be a rule-based mechanism. When viewed from a practical perspective in relation to the final outcome of the US-Shrimp case, the damaging aspects of strategic ambiguity to the DSU can be fully appreciated.