Appellate Body

According to a WTO press release (as also mentioned by Jalal Alavi in the comments), the four new Appellate Body Members have been appointed: The WTO Dispute Settlement Body appointed today (27 November 2007) the following four new members to the seven-member Appellate Body: Ms Lilia R. Bautista of the

From one news reports: Taiwan may back away from its boycott of the placing of a Chinese judge on the World Trade Organization's top legal panel if the island is assured of fair treatment, a Taiwanese official said Sunday. And another: Taiwan on Sunday set a condition for

A little news about the Appellate Body situation: Taiwan's decision to block the appointment of a Chinese judge to the World Trade Organisation's top court threatens an institutional crisis, a key official warned. ... 'I'm extremely concerned that if the situation persists much longer

Diplomatic maneuvering of some sort: Taiwan on Monday blocked a World Trade Organization meeting that would have appointed new judges to the WTO appeals body, including the first Chinese member. Chinese attorney Yuejiao Zhang appeared set for nomination to the seven-member panel until Taiwan made the rare move of forcing

Following-up on Joost's post below, here are some fairly recent bios of the four new AB Members: Lilia Bautista (Philippines) Jennifer Hillman (US) Shotaro Oshima (Japan) Zhang Yuejiao (China)

Wednesday's recommendations by the AB selection committee leaked on "WTO Reporter" http://www.bna.com/products/corplaw/wtor.htm. Here are the reported results: Janow (US) and Tanaguchi (Japan) to be replaced by Hillman (US) and Bautista (Philippines) in December, 2007 Abi-Saab (Egypt) and Ganesan (India)

I have heard that the WTO is now in the process of selecting two new Appellate Body members to replace Mr. Taniguchi and Ms. Janow later this year.  I have also heard rumors about the US government's nominees but could not find anything on it on the USTR

Over at the International Law Reporter blog, Jacob Katz Cogan reports that: China also submitted two nominations: Zhang Yuejiao (a law professor and former government official who was also nominated for an earlier opening) and Zhang Yuqing (an attorney and former government official). Japan has nominated Shotaro Oshima, its former

In a previous post, I mentioned that the following AB members will be stepping down soon: * Merit Janow, United States (December 10, 2007) * Yasuhei Taniguchi, Japan (December 10, 2007) * Georges Abi-Saab, Egypt (May 31, 2008) * A.V. Ganesan, India (May 31, 2008) The WTO now reports the following about nominations