Solution on the legality and legitimacy tension within the world trade organization law based on the positivism school of thoughts

This research is written based on the notion that legality and legitimacy in public international law including the WTO law are generally conflicting. Regardless of this reality, these elements may be harmonized. The harmonization of these elements is expressed by implementing the thoughts of classical positivist scholars, microeconomic scholars, and political scholars. Those classical positivist scholars are Austin, Hart, Kelsen, and Triepel. The method implemented in this research is the normative method with a prescriptive and interdisciplinary nature. This research consists of two discussions. The first discussions analyze the tension between legality and legitimacy within the WTO law based on the positivist school of thought. Meanwhile, the second discussion discusses the solution in the form of the vacuum in the Appellate Body. The first discussion of this research stated that the existence of the WTO law as an imperfect legal system, the various economic forces of each WTO member, and the ability of powerful states in determining the validity of a norm is the cause of the tension between the legality and legitimacy in the WTO law. Furthermore, the solution to a concrete issue in the form of the vacuum in the Appellate Body can be solved through the establishment of an exclusive committee having the purpose of pointing out the Appellate Body members. This though is based on good faith and the collective will as the philosophical basis of the international law existence. The authors of this research article hope that this conceptual basis implementation is applied in the next research discussing other branches of public international law.