Goals of the Institute

The goals of the Pace Institute of International Commercial Law are to facilitate the success of international business transactions by sharing knowledge of international commercial laws and practices through programs that interest and inform the legal profession.

The Institute serves international lawyers and law students in areas of law relating to international commercial transactions and dispute settlement procedures.

Its programs emphasize practical steps to avoid problems and improve responses to foreign customers and environments, competitive practices and government requirements.

Officers of the Institute

The people behind the Institute. People who have come together at the Pace University School of Law and founded the Institute of International Commercial Law to serve our profession:

Dean Emeritus Richard L. Ottinger is Director of the Institute. He served for five years as Dean of Pace Law School, retiring in July 1999. Prior to becoming Dean, he taught environmental law at Pace for ten years. For sixteen years he was a member of Congress, serving as a member of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. He was a founding staff member of the U.S. Peace Corps.

Eric Bergsten, Deputy Director of the Institute, helped create the UN Sales Convention. headed the team responsible for the Secretariat Commentary on it that was prepared pursuant to Resolution 33/93 of the United Nations General Assembly, and was thereafter Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law from 1985 to 1991. A Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law, he is editor of the four volume looseleaf text International Commercial Arbitration (Oceana). To dialogue with Professor Bergsten by e-mail, click here.

Albert Kritzer, the Institute's Executive Secretary, was International Sales Counsel for the General Electric Company and is editor of the International Contract Manual (Kluwer). Recipient of the 1998 Award for Distinction in International Affairs of the New York State Bar Association, his presence on the staff of the Institute is in keeping with Willem Vis' vision: to join the talents of practitioners with the expertise of academic and UN personnel in projects that benefit the world trade community. To dialogue with Albert Kritzer by e-mail, click here.

Members of the Board of Trustees of the Institute

The Institute has gathered around it persons affiliated with international organizations, academic institutions and practitioners from many countries. On the Board of Trustees of the Institute are:

José Maria Abascal, Professor of Law at the National University of Mexico and Partner in Abascal, Calderon y Moreno S.C. (Mexico City), Representative of Mexico to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

William M. Barron, Partner in Walter, Conston, Alexander and Green (New York), author of texts on Litigation and Arbitration in the United States and Antitrust Law in Germany and the U.S.A., has served as General Counsel of Bayer USA Inc.

Axel H. Baum, Managing Partner of the Paris office of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed (New York, Washington D.C, Los Angeles, Miami), has served as a member of special committees established by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to advise on International Arbitration Practices and Procedures.

Michael Joachim Bonell, Professor of Law at the University of Rome (La Sapienza) and Director of the Center for Comparative and Foreign Law Studies (Rome), Legal Consultant, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Representative of Italy to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Amelia E. Boss, Professor of Law at the Temple University School of Law (Philadelphia), Chair of the American Bar Association's Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the Section of Business Law, Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in the area of international electronic commerce, Editor-in-Chief of the Datalaw Reporter.

S.K. Date-Bah, Special Adviser (Legal), Technical Assistance Group of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation at the Commonwealth Secretariat (London), has served as Representative of Ghana to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and as President of its 1978 session.

Fritz Enderlein, Professor of International Trade Law Emeritus at the Academy for Political and Legal Science (Berlin), former member of the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, has served as Representative of the former German Democratic Republic to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Ivan R. Feltham, Queens Counsel, a Director of the Canadian Council for International Business and Co-Chair of the Legal Committee of the Canadian Exporters' Association, has served as Vice President and General Counsel of General Electric Canada Inc. and as Chair of the Legislation Policy Committee and as a Director of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association.

Franco Ferrari. Professor of Law at the University of Bologna, currently posted at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, he has authored many scholarly writings on Uniform International Commercial Law.

Andre H. Friedman, Partner in Nagy & Trocganyi LLP (New York, Budapest), has served as Chair of the Committee on International Trade and Practice of the New York State Bar Association and as General Counsel for the National Association of Export Companies.

Alejandro M. Garro, Lecturer in Law at Columbia University and Associate Research Scholar of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law (Columbia University), is co-author of a leading text on the CISG in Argentina and the author of numerous scholarly articles on International Commercial Law.

Claire M. Germain, Edward M. Cornell Law Librarian and Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, is author of Germain's Transnational Law Research: A Guide for Attorneys.

Charles R. Hann, of Altman Weil Pensa (Philadelphia) and counsel to Fuji Film (New Jersey), has served as International Counsel of Olin Corporation (Stanford) and as President of the Corporate Bar Association of Westchester and Fairfield.

Rolf Herber, Professor of Commercial Law, Director of the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law Institute, at the University of Hamburg, has served as Representative of Germany to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and as President of the United Nations Conference on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (Hamburg, 1978).

Gerold Herrmann, Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) (Vienna).

Honorable Howard M. Holtzmann, Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, and Senior Partner of Holtzmann, Wise & Shepard (New York) on leave since 1981, has served as Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Edward V. Lahey, Jr., Adjunct Professor of Law at the Pace University School of Law, he has served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Pepsico, Inc.

Sergey Lebedev, President of the Maritime Arbitration Commission at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Moscow), has served as Representative of his country to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Salvatore Maccarone, Professor of Law at the University of Rome and Partner in Maccarone & Associates (Rome), Legal Counsel of the Italian Bankers Association.

Manuel Olivencia Ruiz, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Seville (Seville), Representative of Spain to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

William W. Park, Professor of Law, has served as Director of the Morin Center for Banking Law Studies and Graduate Banking Law Program, at the Boston University School of Law, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, North American Counsel to the Executive Committee, London Court of International Arbitration, and of Counsel to Ropes & Gray (Boston).

Michel Pelichet, Deputy Secretary-General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (The Hague).

Ana Isabel Piaggi de Vanossi, Professor of Commercial Law at the School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires, Judge of the Argentina Court of Appeals, Representative of Argentina to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, and Director of the Commercial Law Commission of the Argentina Bar Association.

Peter Schlechtriem, Professor of Law Emeritus at the Albert Ludwig University (Freiburg), Director of the Institute of Foreign and Private International Law (Freiburg) and President of the German Association of Comparative Law, has served as Representative of Germany to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Albert Jan van den Berg, Partner in Stibbe & Simont (Amsterdam), adjunct Professor of Law at the Erasmus University (Rotterdam), has served as General Editor of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration and The International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration, and Vice President of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.

Robert B. von Mehren, Partner in Debevoise & Plimpton (New York), Chair of the Board of Directors of the Practicing Law Institute, has served as President of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ILA).

Ambassador S. Linn Williams, Partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (Washington D.C. and Tokyo), has served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Office of the White House, Washington D.C., as General Counsel of Sears World Trade and as General Counsel of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Peter Winship, Professor of Law at the Southern Methodist University (Dallas), Chair of the Board of Editorial Advisers, The International Lawyer of the American Bar Association (ABA), Corresponding Collaborator, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Member of the American Law Institute, and Member of the Advisory Committee on Private International Law of the U.S. Secretary of State.

Alberto L. Zuppi, former scientific collaborator of the Europa-Institute, University of Saarland and the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lusanne, Switzerland, is a Professor of International Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Buenos Aires, and co-author of a leading text on the CISG in Argentina.