: Citing a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute in MLA? I am trying to cite in MLA (8e) WTO disputes. My paper references about 20 of these, so it is important to cite them efficiently. Here

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The 8th Edition of the MLA has changed the approach to citations:

Like earlier editions, this handbook includes information on
evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, using quotations,
constructing abbreviations, and other topics important to the
scholarly writer. But what is different about the eighth edition is
that it recommends a universal set of guidelines that writers can
apply to any source, in any field. In the past, writers would create
an entry in a works cited list by looking at MLA’s instructions for
how to cite a specific type of source. For example, if you needed to
cite a film, you would consult the handbook to see the proper format
for documenting film. In this new edition, MLA explains that this
method is no longer practical, since types of sources are sometimes
undefinable, or accessible in more than one way (for instance, a
YouTube clip from a film is not the same as the original film itself).
Therefore, the eighth edition offers a new model for entries in a
works cited list, so that rather than consulting the handbook for the
proper way to document a specific type of source, the writer creates
entries by consulting MLA’s list of core elements and compiling them
in the recommended order.

The core elements are as follows:

Author
Number
Title of source
Publisher
Title of container
Publication date
Other contributors
Location
Version

From the link you provided, you would get:

Author: World Trade Organization
Number: DS489
Title of source: China — Measures Related to Demonstration Bases and common Service Platforms Programmes
Publisher: WTO
Title of container: Dispute Settlement Understanding (or Trade Disputes)
Publication date: 22 April 2015 (this is when the panel was established...you could argue other dates)
Other contributors: None
Location: www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds489_e.htm Version: 28 April 2016 (the latest change).

I assume you will have a bibliography with the full citations at the end of your paper and you're asking about how to cite within the text such that readers can easily find the correct reference.

WTO or wto.org both seem reasonable to me. You can use the year it began or the year of the latest version (2015 or 2016 or 2015-16). And yes you really should include the case number. That is going to be the core of what a reader needs to be able to find it.

(WTO DS489, 2015-16)

Or

(wto.org DS489, 2015)

If it's not obvious what DS489 refers to, you can state it in the first in-text citation.

As seen in case DS489 (wto.org DS489, 2015), the United States and
China...

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