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Founders, Directors and Staff
Board of Trustees and CISG-Advisory Council
FOUNDING DIRECTORS
The founding Director of the Institute from inception in 1991 was Willem C. Vis,
until his death in 1993, followed by Nicholas Triffin, until his death in 2000.
Professor Dr. Vis was the Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and served as Executive Secretary of the 1980 Vienna
Diplomatic Conference on the United Nations Convention on the International
Sale of Goods (CISG). Professor Triffin was Director of the Pace Law Library,
editor of Law Books in Print, and author of Legal Research Through Computers
and Factual Research for Lawyers in Practical Research for Lawyers in the
Information Age.
CURRENT DIRECTORS AND STAFF
Pace Law
School Dean Emeritus Richard L.
Ottinger is the current Director of the Institute. Richard Ottinger served for
five years as Dean of Pace Law School, retiring in July 1999. Prior to that, he
taught environmental law at Pace for ten years. He was a member of the United
States Congress for sixteen years, serving as a member of the House Interstate
and Foreign Commerce Committee. He was a founding staff member of the United
States Peace Corps.
Eric E.
Bergsten is the Deputy Director of the Institute. Professor Dr. Bergsten helped
draft the CISG and headed the team responsible for the UNCITRAL Secretariat
Commentary on the CISG that was prepared pursuant to Resolution 33/93 of the
United Nations General Assembly, and, thereafter, from 1985 to 1991 served as
the Secretary of UNCITRAL. He is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the School of Law of Pace University. He is editor of
the multi-volume loose-leaf text International Commercial Arbitration
(Oceana Publications, Inc.) and the Director of the Willem C. Vis International
Commercial Arbitration Moot. The Moot is based on a dispute which flows from a
hypothetical international sale of goods which is subject to the CISG. Teams
representing 136 law schools from 42 countries participated in the most recent
Moot. In 2003, Professor Bergsten was presented by the American Bar
Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution with their “Special Commendation
for his achievements as Director of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial
Arbitration Moot.” In 2004, in recognition of his role as the first and only
Director of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, he was
presented by Vienna, Austria, with its prestigious Silberne Ehrenzeichen, the second highest honor to be awarded by
it.
Albert H. Kritzer is the Executive
Secretary of the Institute. He was International Sales Counsel of the General Electric Company. He
is author and editor of a five-volume loose-leaf text on international sales
law, the International Contract Manual (Kluwer Law International) termed
by the Corporate Bar Association, “a monumental piece of work containing
experience and contributions of over 200 managers and legal counsel … geared to
easy reference and practical information for international departments.” He is
substantive editor of the Institutes Internet Database on the CISG. In 2002,
the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) set out for the first
time to present awards for premier Internet databases. The IALL selected the
Institute’s Database on the CISG as world’s best non-commercial database on the
law on the Internet <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cisg/award.html>.
In 1998 and
2003, Mr. Kritzer and Professor Dr. Bergsten, respectively, were recipients of
the New York State Bar Association’s International Law and Practice Section
Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs. Previous recipients of
the award include United States Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, United
Nations Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali, President of the Soviet
Union/Russian Federation Mikhail Gorbachev and President of Poland Lech Walesa.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE INSTITUTE
The name and affiliations of the members of the Board of Trustees of the Institute are:
José Maria Abascal
- Professor of Law, National University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
- Partner, Abascal, Calderon y Moreno S.C., Mexico City, Mexico
- Member of the delegation of Mexico to the United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
William M. Barron
- Alston & Bird, New York, New York
- Author of texts on litigation and arbitration in the United States
- Author of texts on antitrust law in Germany and the United States
- Former General Counsel, Bayer USA Inc.
Axel H. Baum
- Managing Partner, Paris office, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, Paris, France
- U.S. member ICC International Court of Arbitration
- Frequent speaker and author of articles on arbitration
Michael Joachim Bonell
- Professor of Law, University of Rome I, La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
- Director, Center for Comparative and Foreign Law Studies, Rome, Italy
- Legal Consultant
- International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Rome, Italy
- Member of the delegation of Italy to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Amelia Helen Boss
- Charles Klein Professor of Law, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Law and Public Policy of the James E. Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Chair of the American Bar Association's Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the Section of Business Law
- Former Chair of the Section Officers Conference and the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association
- Member of the delegation of the United States to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- Editor-in-Chief of the Datalaw Reporter
S. K. Date-Bah
- Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana
- Former member of the delegation of Ghana to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- President of the 1978 annual session of UNCITRAL
Fritz Enderlein
- Professor of International Trade Law Emeritus, the Academy for Political and Legal Science, Berlin, Germany
- Former member of the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- Former member of the delegation of the former German Democratic Republic to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Ivan R. Feltham QC
- Recently held the Soloway Chair of Business and Trade Law, University of Ottawa
- Co-Chair, Legal Committee of the Canadian Exporters’ Association
- Former Vice President and General Counsel, General Electric Canada Inc.
- Former Chair, Legislation Policy Committee
- Former Director, Canadian Manufacturers’ Association
Franco Ferrari
- Professor of Law, University of Verona, Verona, Italy (formerly posted as Legal Adviser at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in Vienna)
- Author of many scholarly writings on Uniform International Commercial Law
Andre H. Friedman
- Partner, Nagy & Trocganyi LLP, New York, New York, and Budapest, Hungary
- Former Chair, Committee on International Trade and Practice, New York State Bar Association
- Former General Counsel, National Association of Export Companies
Alejandro M. Garro
- Lecturer in law, Columbia University, New York, New York
- Associate Research Scholar, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law, Columbia University, New York, New York
- Co-author of the leading text on the CISG in Argentina
- Author of numerous scholarly articles on international commercial law
Claire M. Germain
- Edward M. Cornell Law Librarian and Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York
- Author of Germain’s Transnational Law Research: A Guide for Attorneys
Charles R. Hann
- Former Special Advisor, Altman Weil, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Counsel, Fuji Film, New Jersey
- Former International Counsel, Olin Corporation, Stamford, Connecticut
- Former President, Corporate Bar Association of Westchester, Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut
Rolf Herber
- Professor of Commercial Law and Director, Law of the Sea and Maritime Law Institute, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- Former member of the delegation of Germany to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- President of the United Nations Conference on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (Hamburg, 1978)
Gerold Herrmann
- President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA)
- President of the London Court of International Arbitration
- Former Secretary, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) (1991 – 2001)
The Honorable Howard M. Holtzmann
- Former Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands
- Author of the leading text on the UNCITRAL Model Arbitration Law
- Member of the delegation of the United States to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Edward V. Lahey, Jr.
- Chairman of the Board of Directors, American Arbitration Association
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law, White Plains, New York
- Former Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Pepsico, Inc., Purchase, New York
Sergei Lebedev
- President, Maritime Arbitration Commission at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Moscow, Russian Federation
- Member of the Presidium of the International Commercial Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Moscow, Russian Federation
- Head of the Private International and Civil Law Department of the Moscow Institute of International Relations, Moscow, Russian Federation
- Member of the delegation of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Salvatore Maccarone
- Professor of Law, University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- Partner, Maccarone & Associates, Rome, Italy
- Legal Counsel, Italian Bankers Association
Manuel Olivencia-Ruiz
- Professor of Commercial Law Emeritus, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
- Member of the delegation of Spain to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
William W. Park
- Professor of Law, Boston University, School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts
- Former Director, Morin Center for Banking Law Studies and Graduate Banking Law Program, Boston University, School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts
- Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- North American Counsel to the Executive Committee, London Court of International Arbitration
- Of Counsel, Ropes & Gray, Boston, Massachusetts
Michel Pelichet
- Former Deputy Secretary-General, The Hague Conference on Private International Law, The Hague, The Netherlands
Ana Isabel Piaggi de Vanossi
- Professor of Commercial Law, School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Judge, Argentina Court of Appeals, Argentina
- Member of the delegation of Argentina to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- Director, Commercial Law Commission of the Argentina Bar Association
Peter Schlechtriem
- Professor of Law Emeritus, Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany
- Director, Institute of Foreign and Private International Law, Freiburg, Germany
- Former President, German Association of Comparative Law
- Former member of the delegation of Germany to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- Member UNIDROIT Working Group for the UNIDROIT Principles Part II
Albert Jan van den Berg
- Partner, Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Professor of Law (Arbitration Chair), Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- General Editor, Yearbook Commercial Arbitration and The International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration
- Former Vice President, The Netherlands Arbitration Institute
Robert B. von Mehren
- Former Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton, New York
- Vice Chairman of the International Law Association
- Has served as Chairman of the Board and President of Practising Law Institute, New York, New York
- Former President of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ILA)
Ambassador S. Linn Williams
- Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Mission Energy Company
- Former Deputy United States Trade Representative, Office of the President, Washington, DC
- Former General Counsel, Sears World Trade
- Former General Counsel, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
Peter S. Winship
- James Cleo Thompson Sr. Trustee Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
- Chair, Board of Editorial Advisers, The International Lawyer, Section of International Law and Practice, American Bar Association (ABA)
- Corresponding Collaborator, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT)
- Member, American Law Institute
- Member, Advisory Committee on Private International Law of the United States Secretary of State
Alberto L. Zuppi
- Former Secretary of Justice, Argentina
- Member of Faculty of Law Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Co-author leading text on the CISG in Argentina
CISG-ADVISORY COUNCIL
The CISG-Advisory Council includes a selection of the world’s leading authorities on International Commercial Law. Information on the CISG- Advisory Council is annexed. Additional data on the CISG- Advisory Council is available at <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cisg/CISG-AC.html>.
Pace Law School Institute of International Commercial Law - Last updated September 23, 2004
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