James Bacchus
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Visiting Professor of Law
J.D., Florida State University College of Law
M.A., Yale University (Woodrow Wilson Fellow)
B.A., Vanderbilt University
James Bacchus leads the firm's worldwide practice on trade policies, remedies, negotiations, disputes, arbitrations, and other international trade issues. In particular, he offers legal, political, and strategic advice to worldwide clients based on his unique experience with the many issues relating to the global rules for trade and commerce of the World Trade Organization. He is a former judge on the highest international tribunal of world trade, a former Member of the Congress of the United States, and a former Special Assistant to the United States Trade Representative in the Executive Office of the President.
Bacchus returned to Greenberg Traurig after a leave of absence while he served as the Chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, court of final appeal in international trade in Geneva, Switzerland. The seven judges of the Appellate Body hear final appeals in international trade disputes involving the 95 percent of world commerce conducted by the more than five billion people in the 150 countries and other customs territories that are the Members of the WTO.
In December, 2003, Bacchus completed eight years and two terms on the Appellate Body. He was a founding Member, and remains the longest-serving Member, of the highest global trade tribunal. He was twice appointed by consensus of the Members of the WTO, and was twice elected Chairman by his six colleagues. During his eight years of service to the WTO, he was the only American, and the only North American, on the Appellate Body.
Bacchus has a comprehensive knowledge of the more than 30,000 pages of global trade rules in the WTO treaty, and he has written many of the more than 30,000 pages of rulings that have clarified those rules in WTO dispute settlement. He has participated in more cases in the WTO, and has presided in more appeals in the WTO, than anyone else in the world.
Bacchus is the only Member of the Appellate Body to have served on the tribunal during all of the sixty appeals in the first eight years of the new international trade institution, which is the global successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - the GATT. The international trade disputes he judged involved billions of dollars in trade annually relating to goods, services, and intellectual property ranging from apples and bananas, to automobiles and airplanes, to semiconductors and supercomputers, to agriculture, textiles, clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and steel.
His final decision for the WTO was as the presiding judge in the appeal in the complaint by the European Union, Japan, China, Brazil, and other WTO Members against a safeguard measure by the United States restricting imports of steel. Following the decision by the United States to comply with the ruling by Bacchus and his colleagues on the Appellate Body, The New York Times concluded that "this case was the rough equivalent of Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 decision that established the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of the constitution, able to force Congress and the executive branch to comply with its rulings." (Page 25, December 5, 2003). According to the American Lawyer, "James Bacchus, as much as anyone, can lay claim to being the John Marshall of the World Trade Organization." (March, 2004).
In addition to his service at the WTO, Bacchus has also served as a Member of the Congress of the United States, from 1991 to 1995, representing the 15th Congressional District of Florida as a Member of the United States House of Representatives. His district included much of Orlando, Walt Disney World, Cape Canaveral, and the "Space Coast" of Central Florida. He was elected to two terms in the Congress, and chose not to seek election to a third term. He was the first Democrat in the history of the South elected to an open seat in the Congress in a district where Republicans outnumbered Democrats.
While in the Congress, Bacchus was a leader in bipartisan efforts to advance international trade issues. He was a supporter of presidential "fast-track" negotiating authority on trade issues, a leading supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a vocal advocate of extending most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment for China, a champion of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and one of the six original co-sponsors of the implementing legislation for the Uruguay Round trade agreements that established the WTO.
Bacchus was also one of the principal supporters in the Congress of the space program. He was a forceful advocate for commercial space development and for space exploration. He was one of the leading supporters of the space shuttle program, one of the original co-sponsors of the International Space Station, and an advocate generally for more public and private investments in science and technology. He was especially active as well in the Congress on issues relating to children, education, and the environment.
His service in the Congress drew wide praise. The Washington Post described Bacchus as one of the "profiles in courage" in the House. The Wall Street Journal called him a "good-government Democrat." In his home state, the Orlando Sentinel praised him as someone who put "his country's future before his own political career" and chose "to lead in the midst of the crowd." Florida Today concluded that he offered "the vision and leadership needed to build a better future."
His intimate involvement in trade issues in the Congress was a natural outgrowth of his previous experience. From 1974 to 1976, Bacchus served as a senior aide to Florida Governor Reubin Askew. From 1979 to 1981, he served as his Special Assistant while Askew was United States Trade Representative in the Executive Office of the President during the Carter Administration. At USTR, he helped monitor U.S. trade negotiations worldwide, and helped negotiate and implement trade agreements with numerous nations. He was the first Member of the Congress of the United States to have served previously at USTR.
In addition to his current role with Greenberg Traurig, Bacchus is a visiting professor of law at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, Tennessee. He teaches international law at Vanderbilt, with an emphasis on international trade law and on WTO dispute settlement. He has also been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Politics at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He is a former journalist, and is a recipient of the Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association for Outstanding Public Service in Journalism. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. Recently, he served as one of the nine members of the Independent Review Group appointed by the Secretary of Defense to investigate conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
After retiring from the Congress in 1995, Bacchus founded the Orlando office of Greenberg Traurig. He served as the managing shareholder of the Orlando office for the next six years while serving also on the Appellate Body. He is a principal shareholder in the firm. He is the author of the book Trade and Freedom, published in London in March 2004, by Cameron May, featured nationally on "Book TV," and now in its fourth printing worldwide.
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