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With great sadness, the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) announces the death of its first Executive Director, Dr. Frieder Roessler, who passed away last Thursday, 25 July, at the age of 85.

Frieder joined the GATT Secretariat in 1973, as one of the very first lawyers in the Secretariat. He was subsequently Director of the Legal Affairs Division of the GATT (1989-1994) and then the WTO (1995). After leaving the WTO, Frieder taught international trade law in Washington, D.C., and in Lyon, France, before being asked to become the first Executive Director of the ACWL on its establishment in 1999.  At the ceremony to inaugurate the ACWL in 2001, then WTO Director-General Mike Moore expressed his gratitude and respect to Frieder for, “after a distinguished career as GATT and WTO legal adviser, and at an age at which he would be entitled to indulge in his favourite pastime, ocean sailing, [taking it] upon himself, as expert helmsman, to bring the Centre up to speed as a top-quality legal aid institution for international economic law”.

Frieder’s unsurpassed knowledge of GATT and WTO law, and his wisdom, probity, and courtliness, were instrumental in enabling the ACWL to become recognized as a centre of excellence and as an important part of the WTO legal system.  In the words of one of the ACWL’s founders and the first Chairperson of the ACWL’s General Assembly, Mr. Otto Genee, Frieder was “the rock on which the ACWL was built”.

All of us that worked with Frieder at the ACWL learned enormously from him and we continue to remember and apply those lessons in our day-to-day work.  We send our heartfelt condolences to all of Frieder’s family and friends.

There will be a memorial service in the church in Perroy, Vaud, on Friday, 16 August, at 15.00.  In addition, the ACWL will commemorate Frieder and his contribution to the ACWL at an event to be held after the summer.  Further details will be provided in due course.

Frieder will be greatly missed by all of us at the ACWL.

May he rest in peace.

1 August 2024

 

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