Former Board Members

George M. Thomson (Canada)
Former Board Member – 2002-2008| 2015-2020

George M. Thomson, of Canada, is an attorney who earned a B.A. in Philosophy and English and LLB at Queen’s University as well as a LLM at University of California at Berkeley. He has served as Executive Director of the National Judicial Institute of Canada since 1999. Prior to that appointment, he was Special Advisor to the Ministry of Justice of Canada (1998-1999), the Assistant Prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice, and the Deputy Prosecutor of Canada (1994-1998), the Deputy Prosecutor of Ontario (1992-1994), the Deputy Minister of Labor of the Province of Ontario (1989-1992) and the Deputy Minister of the People of the Province of Ontario (1989).
He served as a judge from 1982 to 1989 and as Director of Education for the Upper Canada Law Society (1985-1988). He presided over a provincial commission on social welfare reform (1985-1988) and served as Vice Deputy Minister of Community and Social Services of the Province of Ontario and was responsible for the Services for Minors Division (1977-1982). Dr. Thomson was also a professor at the Western Ontario University Law School and served as the dean of that institution in 1970 and 1971.

Margarita de Hegedus (Uruguay)
Former Board Member – 2018-2020

Uruguayan attorney. Professor of Procedure Law at Universidad de Montevideo (UM) and Director of the Applied Procedure Law Graduate Program and Specialization in Procedure Law and Litigation at the same institution. President of the Eduardo J. Couture Uruguayan Procedure Law Association, member of the Ibero-American Procedure Law Institute and honorary member of the Uruguayan Procedure Law Institute.
She has also taught at Universidad de la República (UDELAR), the Uruguayan Bar Association, Universidad Católica Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (UCUDAL) of Montevideo, the Center for Judicial Research of Uruguay (CEJU), the Judicial Academy –training center for judges and future judges (which is part of the Supreme Court and Judicial Branch), and the Boston Foundation for Negotiation and Mediation (until 2006).
She has offered courses and lectures in her home country and abroad on topics in her areas of specialization (procedure law, arbitration, conciliation and negotiation) and has served as a national and international rapporteur at various national and international procedure law conferences.
She has conducted international consultancies on procedure and mediation in Bolivia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, particularly on training for the implementation of procedure reforms in civil, family and labor law. She is a senior partner with Hegedus Flores Flores Vargas Law Firm.

Alexis Mera (Ecuador)
Former Board Member – 2018-2020

Alexis Mera is an attorney from Ecuador who holds a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil (1996) and a certificate in Administrative Law from Universidad de Salamanca (Spain, 2002). He served as assistant to Guayaquil mayor and former President of the Republic León Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra (1993-1997).
As the advisor to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ecuador (1997-2000), Mera participated in the crafting of the law that created the National Judiciary Council. He later served as an advisor to the new institution until 2001.
He has contributed to the Constitutional Law Course at the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil Law School and taught Political Law at Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo de Guayaquil.
During his tenure as Legal Secretary of the Office of the Presidency of Ecuador (2007-2017), Mera participated in the reform of oral procedures in Ecuador’s civil procedure system through the creation of the new procedure code. In that capacity he also actively contributed to the introduction of the new criminal code and other important reforms.
Mera has been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is headquartered in The Hague, since 2015.

Leonidas Rosa Bautista (Honduras)
Former Board Member 2014-2019

Lawyer. With experience in teaching, private professional practice and public administration. Former Attorney General of the Republic, deputy of the National Constituent Assembly, being part of the Drafting Commission of the same. He also drafted the laws of Concessions, Private Financial Development Organizations and Industrial Processing Zones for Export of Honduras. He was a member of the commission that drafted the Draft Regulations of the Law of the National Registry of Persons. He was a congressman and later appointed by the President of the Republic as Secretary of State in the Offices of Foreign Affairs. In 2005 he was elected Attorney General of the Republic, a position he held until March 10, 2009.

Manuel Montecino Giralt (El Salvador)
Former Board Member – 2013- 2018

Dr. Manuel Montecino holds a degree in the Legal Sciences from Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas in El Salvador as well as a certificate in Political Science and Constitutional Law from the Center for Political and Constitutional Research in Madrid, Spain. He earned a Doctorate in Law from the National University of Education via distance learning in Madrid in 2004.

He has served as the General Director of Legal Affairs in El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2009. Prior to taking this post, he was the Coordinator of Legal Partners in the area of Legal Protection and Advisor to the Presidency of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of El Salvador.

Dr. Montecino is currently the Director of the Master’s degree program in Constitutional Criminal Law at Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas and teaches Procedural and Constitutional Procedure Law at the same institution.

Since 2010, Montecino has been a member of the Ibero-American Network of the Analysis of Data on Criminality and Vice President of the Academic Council of the Specialized Institute for Higher Education for diplomatic training, having previously served as Secretary of that entity. He actively participated as a co-author on the Commission to Draft the Civil and Commercial Procedure Code (2000-2008) and the Commission to Draft the Constitutional Procedure Law (1995-2002) of El Salvador. He also has served as a delegate of the Supreme Court in the discussion and analysis of El Salvador’s Constitutional Procedure Law Bill.

He is the author of numerous articles and papers on commercial, civil and constitutional law.

Douglass Cassel (USA)
Former Board Member – 2013-2018 | 2000-2006

Douglass Cassel is a Professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School and a Notre Dame Presidential Fellow in the U.S. He specializes in international law in the area of human rights and teaches courses, conducts research, publishes and litigates in this area.

Dr. Cassel was appointed to the Board in 2000 and served as its President from 2002 to 2004.

He is also a member of the Board of the Due Process of Law Foundation and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law, both headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the General Assembly of the Inter-American Human Rights Institute, which has its headquarters in San José de Costa Rica.

Professor Cassel has also taught at Oxford University in England, Catholic University-Louvain in Belgium, Universidad Alcalá de Henares in Spain and DePaul, Northwestern and American Universities in the U.S. His articles have been published in academic journals and books throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has directed training programs for judges, prosecutors, public defenders and jurists in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Peru. Dr. Cassel received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1972 and his B.A. in Economics at Yale College in 1969

Santiago Pereira (Uruguay)
Former Board Member 2012-2017

Santiago Pereira, of Uruguay, is an attorney with a degree from Universidad de la República. He is a Professor of Procedure Law at Universidad de Montevideo Law School and the Center for Judicial Research of Uruguay (CEJU), which is part of the Judicial Branch. He is the co-director of the Applied Procedure Law Graduate program and Master’s degree in Law with a focus on Procedure Law at the Universidad de Montevideo Law School.

Pereira is the Vice President of the Ibero-American Procedure Law Institute, a member of the International Procedure Law Association and founder of the Eduardo J. Couture Uruguayan Procedure Law Association.
His work and research have focused on justice systems and their reform and modernization processes since 1988. He has conducted international consultancies on justice systems and procedure law for various international agencies and has been consulted by governments and public and private institutions on judicial reform processes and the development of laws and regulations.

He is a founding partner of the consulting firm Rueda Abadi Pereira, where he leads the Litigation and Arbitration Department.
He has authored and co-authored over 20 books and 200 articles and research papers published in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Spain, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. His publications include Modernización de la Justicia Civil (coordinator and co-author), Código General del Proceso – Comentado, Anotado y Concordado, 6 Volumes (co-author), Estudios multidisciplinarios sobre Derecho Médico y Organizaciones de la Salud (director and co-author), Cinco años de jurisprudencia sobre Relaciones de Consumo – Ley Nº 17.250 (co-author), El proceso civil ordinario por audiencias – La experiencia uruguaya en la reforma procesal civil – Modelo teórico y relevamiento empírico (author), Estudios sobre Defensa de la Competencia y Relaciones de Consumo (director and co-author), El Nuevo Proceso Laboral – Ley 18.572: Enfoque interdisciplinario (co-author), Código General del Proceso – Reformas de la Ley Nº 19.090 y posteriores – Comparadas y Comentadas” (three editions), and Procesos Colectivos: Derechos difusos, colectivos e individuales homogéneos.

He has served as a national rapporteur, presented and lectured at national and international conferences, and has been a visiting professor at U.S. and European universities.
He was elected to the JSCA Board of Directors by the OAS General Assembly in 2012 until december 2017.

Pedro B.A. Dallari (Brasil)
Former Board Member – 2012-2017

A professor with the Department of International and Comparative Law at Universidade de São Paulo, Dallari has a great deal of international experience. In 2009, he served on the Verification Commission of the Goodwill Mission in Colombia and Ecuador (MIB/OAS) as an international legal expert.

He was appointed to the Board during the 2012-2014 period.

Ernesto Pazmiño (Ecuador)
Former Board Member – 2011-2016

J.D., attorney, professor at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar Law School and Ecuador’s first public defender.

On May 8, 2012, the National Assembly installed him in this position after the plenary of the Citizen Participation and Social Control Council unanimously appointed him public defender for a six-year period following a competitive merit-based selection process. He is the designer of the Public Defender’s Office in Ecuador, which went from being the only country that did not have such an institution to the only one that has included it in its Constitution, incorporating it as an autonomous judicial branch agency on October 20, 2010.

He was a lead member of Congress from 2003 to 2007, with over 30 bills submitted; President of the Public Management and Social Security Commission; Member of Latin American Parliament; Vice Minister and Minister of Social Welfare (2001-2002); and World Bank consultant for the Project to Develop Ecuador’s Indigenous and Black Communities -PRODEPINE (1999-2001).

As such, Pazmiño has embraced the commitment to promoting the process of introducing reforms in areas other than criminal law in Ecuador and Latin America in order to bring justice closer to the people, particularly members of the most vulnerable sectors. His main publications include “Desafíos y Perspectivas para la Defensoría Pública Penal en el Ecuador,” in La Transformación de la Justicia, Vol. 7 published by the Ministry of Justice of Ecuador; Los Derechos Humanos en el Sistema de Rehabilitación Social del Ecuador; Las 100 Reglas de Brasilia, Derechos humanos y acceso a la justicia para personas y grupos de atención prioritaria; and Defensa Penal Pública y Litigación Oral.

He was a member of the JSCA Board of Directors from 2011 to 2016.  

Marc Rosenberg (+) (Canada)
Former Board Member – 2009-2014

Marc Rosenberg graduated with a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1971 and an L.L.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1974. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1976 and practiced almost exclusively criminal law until 1995 when he took a leave of absence from the firm Greenspan, Rosenberg and Buhr and joined the Ministry of the Attorney General as Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Public Law and Policy Division and the Civil Law Division. In December 1995, Marc Rosenberg was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal. He was also a Judicial Associate with the National Judicial Institute.

he taught Evidence, Advanced Evidence, and Administration of Criminal Justice: The Role of the Attorney General at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario. He was Head of Section in Criminal Procedure for the Law Society of Upper Canada, Bar Admission Course. He served as a member of the Canadian Bar Association consultation group to the Law Reform Commission of Canada.

He was consultant to the Law Reform Commission on Electronic Surveillance leading to publication of Working Paper #47 in 1986 and consultant to the Commission on Powers of the Attorney General leading to the publication in 1990 of Working Paper #62 “Controlling Criminal Prosecutions: The Attorney General and the Crown Prosecutor.”

He was consultant to the Marshall Inquiry in 1989 with respect to the role of the Attorney General and the role of the Crown Prosecutor. He was a consultant to the Government of Ontario, Justice Review Project from 1991 to 1993. He was associate editor of Canadian Criminal Cases and Dominion Law Reports from 1978 to 1995. He was Coeditor of the Martin’s Annual Criminal Code, Martin’s Related Criminal Statutes and Martins Ontario Criminal Practice. He served as a Director of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association from 1987 to 1991 and was actively involved in the Association’s educational programs for many years. He was a non-bencher member of the Legal Education Committee for the Law Society of Upper Canada from 1993 to 1995. He was a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Law Program from 1979 to 1994. Justice Rosenberg authored numerous articles on Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

He was the President of the JSCA Board of Directors from 2011 to 2013.

Russell Wheeler (USA)
Former Board Member – 2009-2012

Russell Wheeler was the President of the Institute for Governance, a small non-partisan research and public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. The group had a special interest in relationships between government branches and their implications for public policy. Wheeler was also a visiting professor at the Brookings Institute Program on Governance Research. Between 1977 and 2005 he served on the Federal Judicial Center, the U.S. federal judicial branch’s education and research agency. He was appointed Assistant Director of the institution in 1991. He also was one of the first Supreme Court Scholarship recipients and continued to work for the Court for several years as a research assistant in the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice’s Office. He was later a senior associate for several years at the National State Court Center. He earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago in Political Science in 1970 and also has a degree from Augustana College (Illinois, 1965).

Wheeler is a Professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, where he teaches a seminar entitled “The American Courts: The Structure, the People, the Process and the Policy.” In addition to serving on the JSCA Board of Directors, he has been on the board of the Institute to Promote the American Legal System (University of Denver), the Supreme Court Scholarship Commission and the Editorial Board of the Justice System Journal. He has published articles in numerous academic journals and for the Federal Judicial Center on federal education, extracurricular activities for judges, judicial independence and judicial governance.

He also has offered lectures on these topics in many countries, especially Latin America. He has offered his support to the Federal Court Research Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference (1994-95), the Commission of Statutes on Alternative Structures for Federal Appeals Courts (1997-98) and the Research Committee for the Act on Judicial Behavior and Disability (an ad hoc committee appointed by the Honorable Justice Rehnquist in 2004 and led by the Honorable Justice Breyer, who reported to Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts in 2006).

Delano F Bart QC (St. Kitts and Nevis)
Former Board Member – 2010-2012

Mr. Bart has worked as a private attorney at Professional Chambers Dublin and Johnson. In 2006, he served as Special Ambassador of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Permanent Representative Plenipotentiary to the United Nations. In 2007 he was named Queen’s Counsel. Between 1995 and 2006, he was a member of the Federal Parliament of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and member of the Federal Cabinet of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He also served as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs from 2004 to 2006, representing the government before the courts on several occasions, including the Private Council, since 1995.

He served on the JSCA Board of Directors from 2010 to 2012.

Carlos Maldonado Curti (Chile)
Former Board Member – 2010-2012

Maldonado Curti, an attorney with a degree from Universidad de Chile, served as Minister of Justice of Chile during the first administration of President Michelle Bachelet (2007-2010) as well as Undersecretary General of Government (2006), Coordinator General of the Criminal Procedure Reform Unit of the Ministry of Justice (2000-2005) and Executive Secretary of the National Commission to Coordinate Chile’s Criminal Procedure Reform (2000-2005).

He is the Director of the Center for Justice and Security Studies at the Universidad Andrés Bello Law School in Santiago and was a member of the JSCA Board of Directors from 2010 to 2012. He also has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Latin American Chapter of the International Corrections and Prison Association and is a founding member of the Latin American Public Administration Group, which met for the first time in Chiapas, Mexico in 2010.

Germán Garavano (Argentina)
Former Board Member – 2005-2007

Prosecutor General of the City of Buenos Aires. Former member of the Magistrate’s Board of Buenos Aires and former judge. Appointed to the JSCA Board of Directors by the OAS General Assembly in 2005. Researcher for Unidos por la Justicia and consultant on justice projects developed by JSCA, IDB, USAID, UNDP and BIRF in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.

Garavano coordinated the National Judicial Reform Plan and Comprehensive Judicial Reform Program for the Ministry of Justice (6/00-11/03). He was the first Secretary of the Argentine Justice Dialogue Panel. He has worked as a researcher at the A.L. de Gioja Institute at UBA, focusing on the Judicial Branch, Economic Development and Competitiveness in Argentina (UBACYT/CONICET, 1998/2000). He served as the academic director of FORES and visiting researcher at the Institute for Law and Economics at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (1997)

He was the Academic Coordinator of the Judicial Administration and Modernization Program developed by Fundación Carolina, which was offered by Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad Carlos III of Madrid. He has taught in various judicial administration programs (National Magistrate’s Council Academy, Universidad de Buenos Aires, etc.). Garavano is the author and co-author of books such as Poder Judicial, Competitividad y Desarrollo Económico, Tomo I (Ed. Depalma, 2000/2001) and Tomo III (Ed. Rubinzal, Culzoni, 2002); Justicia para Todos (Editorial Planeta, 2000); and Justicia y Desarrollo Económico (CEA, 1999). He is also the author of numerous articles including La Ley, El Derecho and other specialized publications and has spoken and many national and international events (UNAM and CIDE in Mexico, Universidad Complutense and Universidad Carlos III of Madrid in Spain, etc.).

Lucila E. Larrandart (Argentina)
Former Board Member – 2008-2010

Larrandart is an attorney who graduated from the Universidad de Buenos Aires Law School in 1965. She has served as a judge on Federal Criminal Trial Court No. 1 in the San Martín Province of Buenos Aires since 1993. She is also a consulting professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Universidad de Buenos Aires Law School, Assistant Director of the Criminal Law and Criminology Department and professor of “Criminal Law, Special Section” in the Graduate Program in Justice Administration.

Her noteworthy academic career also includes teaching the course “Elements of Criminal and Criminal Procedure Law” at Universidad de Buenos Aires from 1999 to 2006 and her membership on the university’s Consultative Council for the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology. She has served as an advisor for the Criminal Chamber Legislation Commission of Deputies of the Nation. She also was secretary of the Corrections Court for the National Judicial Branch, Advisor to the Undersecretary of Justice of the Ministry of Government and Attorney for the Reporting Office for the National Commission on Disappeared Persons (CONADEP).

She has participated in the drafting of various laws and pieces of legislation including the Criminal Procedure Code for the Province of Buenos Aires (1989), the Statutory Law of the Buenos Aires Province Judicial Branch (1990), the preliminary bills for the Law on Children and Adolescents for the Provinces of Mendoza and La Pampa and the Law on the Status of and Criminal Regime for Children and Adolescents (UNICEF). Her international experience includes work as the National Consultant of ILANUD (1988-1992) and Legal Consultant for UNICEF (1992-1996).

Carlos Eduardo Caputo Bastos (Brasil)
Former Board Member – 2005- 2007

Bastos, of Brazil, holds a law degree from Universidade de Brasilia with a focus on Labor and Benefits Law, Finance and Tax Law and Constitutional Law. He has served as a consultant with the National Center for States Courts – NCSC, Washington, D.C.; the European Union Delegation in Brasilia; and the World Bank in Brasilia. Bastos also worked as an arbitrator with the Brazilian Commercial Arbitration Chamber and the Pernambuco Center for Mediation and Arbitration. He was a legal consultant for the National Confederation of Liberal Professions (1987-1989) and the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (1985-1986).

He was appointed by the National Confederation of Industry to the 1st Chamber of the 2nd Council of Taxpayers of the Treasury. In 1986 he worked on the legal consulting for the Secretariat of Planning of the Presidency of the Republic and remained in that position until April of that same year.

He has been a legal advisor to the Brasilia Federation of Industries and representative and Desk Chief for Grupo Ultra, also in Brasilia. He was hired as the legal advisor of the Secretariat of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Bastos has worked as an attorney since 1977 and is a founding partner of CAPUTO, BASTOS, FRUET E BOUISSOU ADVOGADOS, which is registered with the Brazilian Order of Attorneys- Federal District Section. He mainly has worked in the Federal Supreme Court, Superior Electoral Court and Superior Court of Justice.

Lloyd Ellis (+) (Jamaica)
Former Board Member – 2004-2009

Lloyd Ellis was a Bachelor of Laws (London) and Barrister of Laws (Inner Temple) as well as a Crown Attorney in the General Prosecution Chamber (1965-1970); Magistrate in Residence in the Records Magistrate Court (Kingston, 1970-1981); Senior Assistant Prosecutor in the Prosecutor General’s Office (1973-1981); Supreme Court Justice (1981-1998); Senior Magistrate in the Supreme Court of Jamaica (1998-2002); Associate Tutor responsible for Civil Procedures in the Norman Manely Law School (beginning in 1975); and President of the Police Authority for Public Complaints (beginning in 2002).

Karl Terrence Hudson-Phillips (Trinidad & Tobago)
Former Board Member – 2001-2006

For over four decades, Karl Terrence Hudson-Phillips has practiced law in all of the common law jurisdictions of the Caribbean, from the Bahamas in the north to Guyana in the south. During that time, he has been involved in nearly every important criminal trial that has been held in the Eastern Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago. He has worked as a defense attorney in Saint Kitts (1967-1968) and recently defended cases involving manslaughter in Trinidad and Tobago. In the latter, he successfully questioned the right to appeal against directed ‘not guilty’ verdicts. The matter is being appealed in Private Council. His first important work as a defense attorney was the R v Kilgour [1960] 3W case, which he was assigned shortly after finishing his examinations in Trinidad and Tobago.

Hudson-Phillips also took part in the prosecution of several important cases in the Caribbean. He successfully prosecuted a former Premiere of Antigua and Barbuda for corruption and poor delivery of public service in the first instance (1978). He has also taken part in various extradition matters representing foreign governments and fugitives and has prosecuted matters related to dangerous drugs including murders.

In addition to his extensive practice in criminal trials, Hudson-Phillips has worked on a wide range of matters in all areas of law with the exception of taxes and environmental protection law. He has found the time to preside over the Trinidad and Tobago Legal Association, the regulatory body that all attorneys in Trinidad and Tobago must join. He also maintains an active practice. He was chosen to serve on an investigative commission in Antigua to explore allegations of poor conduct regarding the country’s Medical Benefits Regulation. In 1987, he presided on the Commission to Investigate the Royal Police Service of Saint Lucia.

Hudson-Phillips also led the trial involving several individuals and companies accused of poor delivery of public service and corruption in Trinidad and Tobago. He was appointed to JSCA Board of Directors by the OAS general Assembly with the highest vote of all of the candidates. He was reelected to that position unopposed in July 2002 for a second three-year period. In 1999 he was appointed to the Council for the Legal Association of the Commonwealth.

María Soledad Alvear Valenzuela (Chile)
Former Board Member – 2000-2004

María Soledad Alvear Valenzuela was Minister of Foreign Relations of Chile under President Ricardo Lagos from March 2000 to September 2004. During that time, Chile’s foreign policy was characterized by a focus on Latin American identity, open commercial policy and a strong interest in international cooperation. This was part of an effort to ensure that the main focus of all public policies -in Chile and in the world- was the people, promoting the strengthening of democracy, peace, human rights, social equity and protection of the environment.

Soledad Alvear served as Minister of Justice under President Frei (1994-2000), during which she promoted a global reform of Chilean justice. During the administration of President Aylwin (1990-1994), she served as the Minister Director of the National Women’s Service, which she founded and from which she launched an equality of opportunities plan. During the second round of elections held in December 1999-January 2000, she was the Executive Director of the Ricardo Lagos campaign. She earned a law degree from Universidad de Chile and completed graduate studies in Development Sciences at the Latin American Institute for Development and Social Studies.

She has taught at several universities and has written about issues of justice, human rights, family, childhood and international relations. In addition to serving on the JSCA Board of Directors, she has served on the Board of Universidad Alberto Hurtado; the Advisory Committee of the Chilean Council on Foreign Relations; the Committee of Honor of the “Children’s Crusade” project; and the National Board of the Christian Democrat Party of Chile.

Federico Callizo Nicora (+) (Paraguay)
Former Board Member – 2000-2004

Federico Callizo Nicora, of Paraguay, is an attorney who has served as the President of the Paraguayan Bar Association (1970-1972) and member of the Board of that agency for several periods. He is also the former President of the Committee on Integration and Development of the Inter-American Federation of Attorneys and a permanent member of the Federation’s Board. He is the former President of the Executive Committee and Federation (1990-1991). Callizo was elected in the Washington Conference held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Inter-American Federation of Attorneys. A member of that institution since 1971, he had attended various conferences and council meetings as an individual member or as the representative of the Paraguay Bar Association for over 20 consecutive years.

In addition, he is a former member of the International Union of Attorneys and represented the Board at International Union of Attorneys conferences held in Paris in 1971 and Madrid in 1973. Callizo served as the President of the Paraguayan Commercial Arbitration Commission, which was founded in 1998 as a National Chapter of the Inter-American Arbitration Commission in Paraguay. He has taken part in numerous international meetings on arbitration held in such cities as Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Cali, Lima, Ottawa, Río de Janeiro and Recife, Montevideo and Barcelona. He is a founding member and Board Member of the private institution FORO SIGLO 21 and is responsible for the agency’s Constitutional Area. Callizo is an individual member of the Asunción Chamber of Commerce and served as a Board Member. He also was Secretary General of the institution for several periods. He participated in several Ibero-American Chamber of Commerce Association conferences in representation of the Asunción Chamber of Commerce.

Callizo is a founding member of the Paraguayan Administrative Law Association and corresponding and honorary member of the Argentine Bar Association- Institute for Legislative Studies. He was a member of the Magistrature representing the professional association of attorneys and served as President from 1994 through March 2001. He also was Vice President of the Upper Committee of the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission (CIAC) and is a member of the Paraguayan Conciliation and Arbitration Committee. Callizo is the author of various news articles on judicial issues, current affairs and topics related to commercial arbitration and has granted many interviews with the media on topics related to the independence of the Judicial Branch.

Mónica Nágel Berger (Costa Rica)
Former Board Member – 2000-2004

Mónica Nágel Berger, of Costa Rica, is an attorney and notary public with a master’s degree in Political Science. She served as Minister of Justice and President of the Administrative Board of the National Registry from February 1998 through May 2002. During that period she was also President of the Construction, Facilities and Acquisitions Board (the body responsible for managing the funds allocated to the country’s prisons). She was appointed President of the National Censorship Commission in February 1988. Between August 1998 and May 2002, and by Executive Decree (27227-J dated August 13, 1998), she was President of the National Council for the Prevention of Violence and Crime. She also has worked as an attorney in private practice.

Between 1990 and 1994, she was Vice Minister of Justice per Decree No 190709 of May 8, 1990 and was responsible for approving resolutions of the Human Resources Directorate. She also served as a public defender in the Office of the Public Defender for Children (March 1990-March 1993). She worked with Nagel and Associates as an attorney and notary public from 1983 to 1990 and taught Royalties Law at Universidad Autónoma de Centroamérica from 1983 to 1985.

She has vast experience in consulting and program management with international agencies such as the IDB, ILANUD, UNICEF and CICAD. In addition to earning a master’s degree in Political Science in 2002, she completed her law degree at Universidad Autónoma de Centroamérica, graduating cum laude in 1983. In 1981 she completed her bachillerato in Law at the same institution, also cum laude. She is the author of numerous publications and has participated as an expert speaker at many national and international seminars and conferences. She was appointed to the JSCA Board of Directors in 2000 and served as Board President.

Raphael Carl Rattray (Jamaica)
Former Board Member -1999-200

Rattray, of Jamaica, served on the JSCA Board of Directors from 1999 to 2002.

José Ovalle (Mexico)
Former Board Member – 1999-2002

Ovalle, of Mexico, served on the JSCA Board of Directors from 1999 to 2001.