Peter VAN DEN BOSSCHE

At its 2018 Conference in Washington DC from 12 to 14 July 2018, the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) elected Prof. Peter L.H. Van den Bossche, Director of Studies of the World Trade Institute and professor of International Economic Law at the University of Bern, as its President for the next three years. The SIEL is a global membership organization for academics, practitioners and officials in the field of international economic law. The election of an out-going WTO appellate judge as SIEL President sends a strong message of defiance and opposition to populist policies of economic nationalism, which undermine the rules-based system for trading relations between countries and lead to devastating trade wars.

Peter Van den Bossche is Member of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, Geneva and Professor of International Economic Law at Maastricht University. Van den Bossche is a member of the Board of Editors of the Journal of International Economic Law. He is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe, Bruges (since 2010); the China-EU School of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing (since 2009); the World Trade Institute, Berne (since 2002); the International Economic Law and Policy Programme of the Universitat de Barcelona (since 2007); the Institut d’études européennes of the Université libre de Bruxelles (since 2003); the Academy of International Trade and Investment Law, Macau SAR, China (since 2003); and the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa, Arusha (since 2007).

Van den Bossche graduated magna cum laude from the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp (1982). He holds an LL.M. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1986) and a Ph.D in law from the European University Institute, Florence (1990).

Van den Bossche worked at the Court of Justice of the European Communities, Luxembourg, as référendaire of Advocate-General W. Van Gerven (1990-92) after which he joined the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, where he was appointed to the position of senior lecturer in 1993. From 1997 to 2001, Van den Bossche was Counsellor to the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, Geneva. In 2001, he served as Acting Director of the Appellate Body Secretariat, after which he returned to Maastricht University as Professor of International Economic Law.

From 2005 to 2009, Van den Bossche was Head of the Department of International and European Law of Maastricht University. In 2007, he founded the Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR) at Maastricht University and served as its first Academic Director until his appointment to the WTO Appellate Body in 2009.

Between 2002 and 2009, Van den Bossche has acted as a consultant on WTO law to the European Commission, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Ministry for the Environment, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and several NGOs and law firms. He has conducted capacity building and consultancy activities in Brazil; Nicaragua; Guatemala; Tanzania; South Africa; Thailand; Indonesia; Chinese Taipei; Macau, China; Hong Kong, China; Cambodia; Lao PDR; the Philippines; Singapore; Brunei and Saudi Arabia.

Van den Bossche is the author of The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 917 p.

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