Perhaps at no time since the late 1940s has there been more pressure on the rules-based international economic order. In the United States, President Donald Trump is imposing and removing, increasing and lowering tariffs at break-neck speed, all in contravention of American tariff commitments under multilateral and bilateral agreements. Across the globe, debt levels reached a new record high, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimating that numerous low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of being so, including well more than half of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank’s singular role of reducing global poverty has essentially ground to a halt, with progress interrupted by the COVID pandemic, heightened conflict and geopolitical tensions, increases in inflation, and the sharp tightening in global financial conditions.

In the midst of all of this chaos and turmoil, Gabrielle Marceau has stood strong and tall with consistent reminders to me and to the world of the importance of the rule of the law and the ability for good rules that are fairly enforced to bring a measure of calm to the chaos and a degree of justice to the unjust. At this moment in time, when we need more multilateralism, not less, and more faith in a rules-based system, we also need more Gabrielle than ever. Because Gabrielle, perhaps the most well-known of women lawyers at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a surprisingly crowded field, managed to be everywhere at once, a constant source of help, of edification, of reminding and of nudging all around her to understand, to appreciate, and to adhere to the rule of law.

So how did she do it? How did she manage to teach, inspire, and cajole so many of us to look more deeply and to strive much harder to ensure that our work reflected the importance of rules in the trading system?

For me, it starts with her insistence for a seat at the table—for lawyers and for women and I thank her both. When I arrived at the WTO Appellate Body in 2007, one of the first people outside of Appellate Body Secretariat I met was Gabrielle, who was serving then in the Cabinet of WTO Director General (DG) Pascal Lamy. In many ways, it was Gabrielle who defined and shaped the role of legal advisor to the Director General, proving to everyone in the building how essential it was to have a lawyer whispering in the DG’s ear. It was Gabrielle’s task to ensure an understanding at the highest levels of the WTO of the legal significance of panel and Appellate Body decisions and to insist that the DG and everyone in the Cabinet was well aware of the legal significance of their own decisions. Gabrielle understood how essential it was that the senior leadership of the WTO could articulate for the rest of the world the mechanics of the dispute settlement system, its role within the WTO as a whole, and the rationale and implications of every panel or Appellate Body report. It was Gabrielle keeping everyone on their toes and speaking with a coherent voice about the legal aspects of the WTO and its work.

Gabrielle was equally a champion of giving women a seat at the table, taking to heart US Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright’s famous quote: “[T]here is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.”<fnref n="1" /> Gabrielle should have no fear, as the countless women that she taught, mentored, promoted and supported can attest. Gatherings at her cheery flat in Geneva were always filled with the most eclectic and engaged collection of women who Gabrielle had touched and inspired in some way. Given some of the difficult fights she faced being one of only a handful of women in her circles, she understood the value in having multiple women at the table, and of uplifting those who were there. She reveled in bringing out different points of view and was a master at weaving them into a coherent whole.

For Gabrielle, ensuring women had a seat at the table had a substantive component as well. She was the force behind a comprehensive assessment of the WTO agreements through a gender lens, looking across the entire set of WTO rules to ferret out those that might appear gender neutral but were having a disparate impact on women. Her work fed into the joint World Bank/WTO report, *Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality*.<fnref n="2" /> Through that work, Gabrielle was able to bring a legal dimension to the WTO’s World Trade Congress on Gender and its important findings that making trade policies more responsive to gender issues improves gender equality in trade, supports poverty reduction, and fosters sustainable growth.

Second, Gabrielle’s inspiration and legacy stem from the creativity she always brought to thinking about the trading systems’ rules and where they could and should be headed in the future. She was an early champion of writing about the relationship between trade rules and everything from human rights to peace, to the environment and climate change. It was often Gabrielle who saw that WTO law must evolve and who articulated where and how it could do so, bringing in her deep knowledge of public international law principles as one of the tools to guide that evolution. Indeed, Gabrielle was one of the pioneers writing about the flexibility already available in the WTO Agreements to take on board environmental concerns, including climate change. Her creativity in finding the policy space in the interstices in the WTO rules was legendary. It is small wonder that she was a key voice in the background of a group drafting guidance on principles of international law relevant for consideration in the design and implementation of trade-related climate measures and policies.

Third, Gabrielle stands out in the panoply of international trade law experts in no small part due to her persistence and her prodigious work ethic. I marvel at all that Gabrielle was able to get written and at all of the hundreds of public speaking engagements she took on, all while working at more than a full-time job at the WTO and teaching as an Associate Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva and a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Development (HEID). Gabrielle was simply able to turn out more high-quality work and to offer more memorable and thought-provoking remarks at more public engagements than almost anyone else at the WTO. She was simply ubiquitous and irrepressible in her command of WTO law and her willingness to explain over and over why the WTO rules matter. The combination of her deep expertise, her mastery of international and trade law, and her fearlessness in making her compelling points meant you never forgot being on a panel with Gabrielle or listening to her speak. She was someone that was always worth listening to and who made everyone who heard her more well informed and challenged to think deeper or differently about the subject of the day.

Finally, Gabrielle was able to reach her pinnacle of success as the keeper of the multilateral trade rules due to the sheer dint of her marvelous personality and her *joie de vivre*. Gabrielle was simply fun to be around, with an infectious laugh, a ready smile, and a connection to make between people from different countries and points of view. She was able to defuse frequent tensions with a helpful suggestion, with a calming presence, or a well-timed nudge. Gabrielle loved including others in the fun too. A trip to a WTO conference in India would not have been the same without Gabrielle’s insistence on a shopping trip—sharing her enthusiasm for finding hidden treasures and beautiful things. By being someone that others looked forward to seeing, to sharing adventures with, to confiding in, Gabrielle was able to bring so many people together in sharing a common understanding and commitment to acting for the good of all.

When I graduated from the Harvard Law School, I was told that my law degree meant that I was becoming a maker and shaper of those wise restraints that keep people free. Gabrielle Marceau did so much more with her law degree—becoming the maker and shaper of international rules and an indefatigable champion of multilateralism. We are at a moment when the global economic challenges facing the world—from climate change, to rising debt, to corruption, to technological disruption—have grown more complex and more urgent, while the rapid advance of authoritarianism and nationalism has undermined our ability to collectively meet them. It is precisely at this moment when the world needs to learn the many lessons that Gabrielle Marceau taught me and so many others: rules and the multilateral application and enforcement of them matters. It is through smart rules, innovatively interpreted, fairly and effectively enforced, that the world can best come together to address the difficult challenges that await. We are all better off and better prepared for having learned how to fight for a seat at the table and how to creatively but persistently bring a rules-based mindset to the fore through collaborating with, listening to and learning from Gabrielle Marceau. While wishing her all the best in her future endeavors, those who were inspired by her legacy need to apply her ingenuity, inclusiveness and dogged determination to ensure that an innovative, rules-based international economic system comes alive.

<footnote n="1">Madeleine K Albright, Address (delivered at the Celebrating Inspiration Luncheon with the WNBA’s All-Decade Team, 12 July 2006) [unpublished].</footnote>

<footnote n="2">World Bank Group & World Trade Organization, *Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality*(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020), online (pdf): <wto.org> [perma.cc/DP35-HLTN].</footnote>