The World Trade Organization has appointed Harvard Law School alumnus and former HLS Visiting Professor of Law Seung Wha Chang LL.M. ’92 S.J.D. ’94 to serve on its seven-member Appellate Body. The Appellate Body was established in 1995 by the Dispute Settlement Body to hear appeals issued by panels in disputes brought by WTO members. Chang will settle international trade disputes alongside distinguished trade experts from the U.S., the E.U., China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Read more about his appointment in BloombergBusinessweek.

A professor in trade law at Seoul National University, Chang specializes in international trade and investment, international arbitration and international competition law. He served as a WTO panelist for seven high-profile dispute settlement proceedings including the complex US-Foreign Sales Corporation case and Canada-Aircraft II. He is a leading arbitrator in the Asia-Pacific region and regularly serves as an arbitrator for the International Chamber of Commerce and other leading arbitral institutions.

At HLS, Chang taught “Korean Law and Global Economic Order” as a visiting professor in Fall 2011.

HLS Professor William Alford, vice dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies and the supervisor (along with the late Professor Oliver Oldman) of Chang’s doctoral dissertation said, “This is a wonderful appointment. Seung Wha Chang is one of the world’s foremost scholars of trade law. He’s extraordinarily intelligent, broadly learned and eminently fair-minded. He will do a superb job.”

Since 1995, Chang has been a professor of law at Seoul National University. He has also been a visiting professor of law at Yale, Stanford, NYU, Duke, Georgetown, UCLA and the National University of Singapore. Prior to teaching, he practiced law at Covington & Burling and was a judge of the Seoul District Court.

Chang served as co-president of the Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group and Chairman of Korean Council for International Arbitration and is currently a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

You can read more about the role of the Appellate Body in the World Trade Organization website.