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The World Trade Organisation ('wTo') is a relative youngster on the international scene: born in 1995 in the heights of internationalism, it is a Generation Z institution flanked by its mostly Boomer 1 and Generation X2 companions. Yet at the tender age of 25, the WTO is being challenged like never before. Shifting geopolitical power and the ongoing trade war between the United States ('US') and China present new challenges to the way that trade rules are viewed and enforced. The blocking of Appellate Body (AB') appointments by the US-a policy which began in earnest in 2017-threatens to leave the WTO dispute settlement system unable to function. 3 Yet although this tactic is new, it is only possible because of an overhang from the pre-WTO, ad-hoc General