This article examines the history of countervailing duty determinations with respect to softwood lumber between 1982 and 2005. The piece is divided into two main areas of analysis. First, the article chronicles and reviews certain key determinations made throughout the history of softwood lumber countervailing duty proceedings. It examines, in particular, certain recurring themes as well as issues that shed light on some of the interesting jurisprudential questions that arise out of the case study. Second, having completed this review, the note turns to distill some lessons from the experience to date. These lessons focus on the light shed by the lengthy history of the softwood lumber dispute upon the nature of subsidies disciplines in international trade. They also focus on what the softwood lumber dispute reveals about the relationship between different judicial actors at the international level. The article closes with some reflections on the limits of international dispute settlement tools in highly contentious and politicized cases.