Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 14 • 22nd April 2009
Search Is on for Two New Appellate Body Judges
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Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, the European Union and Mexico have presented their candidates for two vacancies on the WTO’s Appellate Body, the organistion’s highest court.
The Appellate Body (AB), which is composed of seven judges, saw the departure of one of its members, Luiz Olavo Baptista, a Brazilian lawyer, earlier this year; that post must be filled in July. A second vacancy will open up in December, when Italian law professor Giorgio Sacerdoti, will come to the end of his tenure. Each judge on the AB serves a four-year term that can be renewed once.
Although Appellate Body judges do not represent individual governments, it is seen as prestigious for a country to secure a nomination on the body. The AB currently includes judges from China, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa and the United States.
Canadian ambassador John Gero, who is the head of the WTO’s dispute settlement body, is chairing the six-member interview panel that is charged with finding the replacements. The panel conducting interviews with the six candidates this week; after consulting with Members, the panel will propose two names at the end of May. Those names would then be put forward to the Dispute Settlement Body for approval in June.
According to WTO custom, one place on the high court is reserved for Latin America and one for the European Union. This norm helps to preserve a representative composition of the geographical origin, as well as the different legal systems, of the WTO’s 153 Members.
The four Latin American nominees are Hector Torres of Argentina, a former member of the Argentinean delegation to the WTO; Ellen Gracie Northfleet of Brazil, who is currently a judge on her country’s highest court; Ronald Saborío, Costa Rica’s current ambassador to the WTO; and Ricardo Ramirez of Mexico, a former trade negotiator who now works as a lawyer.
The European bloc has made two nominations: Peter Van den Bossche, a Belgian national who was formerly a legal counsellor to the AB and the director of its secretariat; and Pieter-Jan Kuijper of the Netherlands, who has previously served as the director of the WTO secretariat’s Legal Affairs Division and as the director for international trade with the European Commission’s Legal Service.
This article was translated and adapted from Puentes Quincenal, Vol. 6 No. 7; “WTO top court attracts strong nominations,” REUTERS, 9 April 2009; “WTO’s Appellate Body attracts high-caliber nominations,” Institute of International Trade, 10 April 2009.
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