국제법 상 소비자보호와 지속가능한 개발에 관한 고찰- 국제통상법 상 소비자이익의 보호와 지속가능한 개발을 중심으로 -

Although the protection of consumer interests, particularly consumers’ fundamental and social interests, can contribute the so called “sustainable development” because the adequate protection of consumer interests will result in consumers’ sustainable consumption pattern which is regarded as an important factor for sustainable development, the issue of protection of consumer interests in international law has been overlooked. Therefore, the issue of protection of consumer interests in international law should be noted form the sustainable development perspective. In that sense, it is somewhat inconvenient that international law, particularly 「World Trade Organization Agreement」(hereinafter referred as the “WTO Agreement” is insufficient to deal with the consumer protection issue, because the 「WTO Agreement」 declares ‘sustainable development’ as well ‘trade liberalization through market opening’ as its normative objectives and directly deals with the issue of protection of consumer interests in various aspects. Accordingly, the author thinks it is necessary to aggressively pursue ‘consumer protection and sustainable development oriented’ interpretation, application and operation of the 「WTO Agreement」 based on the recognition that the 「WTO Agreement」 can be a very useful international legal instrument for the protection of various consumer interests. Based on the above perception, this paper considers how the 「WTO Agreement」 can protect consumer interests and how its interpretation, application and operation should be improved for more sufficient protection of consumer interests from the sustainable development perspective.