The Appellate Body in its formative years

This chapter is a personal reflection on my association with the Appellate Body of the WTO for over eight years in its formative or ‘teething’ period. My association with that august body began on 1 June 2000 and ended on 31 July 2008 after I completed my work as a member of the division selected to consider the appeal in US – Customs Bond Directive. The Appellate Body had begun its work in 1996, and when I joined it four years later, appeal No. 32, Canada – Patent Term, was before it. I became a member of the division deciding that appeal – my first case as a member of a division of the Appellate Body. And when I left the WTO in July 2008, I was a member of the division that heard appeal No. 88, US – Customs Bond Directive. I was thus associated with fifty-seven appeals decided by the Appellate Body over that eight-year period, in which I served as a member or presiding member of the division in about twenty-two appeals. I also served as an arbitrator to determine the reasonable period of time needed for implementation of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) rulings in three cases.