Referenten
Referentinnen & Referenten
Bram Akkermans
Maastricht University
Bram Akkermans is Assistant Professor for European Private Law at Maastricht University. After completing his degree in European law and comparative law at the European Law School (LLM) at Maastricht University, Bram Akkermans was a lecturer and course developer at Fontys University of Professional Education in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In 2004 he returned to the law faculty of Maastricht University where he completed a ph.d. thesis in the field of European and Comparative Property Law.
Bram Akkermans is a member of the curriculum committee that in September 2006 set up the renewed European Law School program, which is taught completely in English. He is co-responsible in this European Law School English Track program for the courses on comparative property law, European property law and European contract law. In 2007 Bram Akkermans was involved in the setting up of a new innovative course on legal writing for the European Law School English Language Track. Bram Akkermans is a member of the research school Ius Commune, a transnational research school between the universities of Maastricht, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Leuven. Other partners include the University of Edinburgh, University of Liège and the University of Stellenbosch. He is also advisor to the Board of Governors of that same research school.
Britta Baron
University of Alberta
Britta Baron is Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (International) at the University of Alberta where she spearheads the international initiatives and activities of the University. Through collaboration internally with students, faculty and staff and externally with agencies, governments and businesses, Ms. Baron works to forward the University’s international goals in areas such as partnership development, recruitment, student and staff mobility and alumni relations.
A widely recognized expert in international education, Britta Baron has held a number of senior leadership positions in Brussels, London, Bonn, and New York. Prior to coming to the University of Alberta, Ms. Baron served as the Director of the Canadian Universities’ Centre in Berlin and worked as an independent senior consultant in international education for several German institutions. From 1983 to 2004, she served in various leadership roles in the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst or DAAD), most recently as Director of its New York Office. Ms. Baron was also appointed visiting professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Keele in the United Kingdom and taught in the Master’s program in International and Comparative Education at the Institute of Education of the University of London.
In addition to degrees in Italian, French, History, and German from the University of Florence and the University of Bonn, Ms. Baron holds an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University. She has participated as a member on a number of selection and review committees, including the 2004 Scotiabank-AUCC Awards of Excellence in Internationalization expert panel and the Advisory Council to the BMW Centre for German and European Studies at Georgetown University.
Morad Eghbal
University of Baltimore
Since 1994 Professor Eghbal has taught at University of Baltimore, in addition to his portfolio on the law faculty, in legal, ethical and historical studies and international business and management. He is the Director of the LL.M. degree program in the Law of the United States.
Professor Eghbal’s particular areas of expertise include foreign entity rules and practices in the context of domestic and international inter-firm agreements, supplier-chain issues, competitive and transfer pricing practices, vertical and horizontal integration, customs and tariffs and their impact on international and regional agreements, transfer pricing, and foreign payment systems and U.S. federal policies and regulations affecting international technology initiatives and foreign development schemes. Previously, Professor Eghbal was an associate at the law offices of former state senator Omer L. Rains in Sacramento, California, where his assignments involved international banking and finance, U.S. - China trade relations and European Community law. He clerked for the late Honorable William B. Bryant (1911-2005), U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Professor Eghbal also served as an associate at Pestalozzi, Gmuer & Heiz in Switzerland. Professor Eghbal serves as the faculty advisor of UB Law School's Jessup International Law Moot Court Team, and is a past-President of the UB Faculty Senate (academic year 2002-03). From 2003 to 2004, he served as President of the Maryland-Baltic Educational Consortium (M-BEC), now The Maryland Baltic European Council. He now also serves as the chair of the Baltic American Institute.
He holds a J.D. from Howard University School of Law, an LL.M. in Transnational Business Practice from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, an M.A. in Philosophy & Social Policy, from George Washington University, and advanced certificates in international legal studies from the Inns of Court School of Law in London, the University of Salzburg in Austria, and Eötvös-Lorand University in Hungary.
Andreas Fijal
Freie Universität Berlin
Andreas Fijal was born on 22 November 1957 in Berlin-Charlottenburg as the son of a musician and a journalist. He began his studies at the Law Department of Freie Universität Berlin in 1976 and obtained the degree of the First State Examination in 1982. After two years of practical training, he passed the Second State Examination in 1985.
From 1985 to 1996 he worked as an Assistant Teacher at the Institute for the History of Law at Freie Universität Berlin and taught History of Law and Private Law. He was awarded the Ernst Reuter Prize for his dissertation “The History of the Berlin Juridical Society”, which was graded with summa cum laude.
From 1996 to 2001 he worked as an attorney-at-law for a Berlin law firm. Since 2001 he is the Director of the Academic Advisory Office at the Law Department of Freie Universität Berlin and the ERASMUS Exchange Coordinator. In 2003 he became the Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs.
Toni M. Fine
Fordham University School of Law
Toni M. Fine received her education from Harpur College, SUNY Binghamton, and from Duke University School of Law, from where she graduated in 1986. She has held several teaching positions at George Washington University in Washington, DC, at the New York University School of Law in New York and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. Toni M. Fine has been an Associate at Crowell & Moring and has been a consultant for both private law firms and government agencies. She is currently teaching at Fordham Law School, where she is also Director for Graduate and International Programs and Assistant Dean for International and Non-JD Program.
Stephan Geifes
Franco-German University, Saarbrücken
Stephan Geifes, born in 1968 in Germany, has been Secretary General of the Franco-German-University since 2005.
Before joining the Franco-German University, he was Director of the Paris office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from 2001 to 2005. Stephan Geifes studied History, Sociology, Roman languages and Political Sciences at the University of Bielefeld (Germany), the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP, Paris). After earning a Master’s degree in History from the University of Bielefeld in 1996, he continued his studies from 1997 to 1999 at the master of public administration level at the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA, Paris) from 1997 to 1999. After a long-term internship at the European Union (General Secretariat, Relations with the council) he started his career in the field of international university relations as assistant to the President at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Bonn. He has published on international higher education exchanges, with particular focus on relations between France and Germany.
Michael Gressmann
Federal Ministry of Justice
Dr. Michael Gressmann studied Law in Regensburg from 1981 to 1986. In 1989, he completed his Preparatory Training at the Higher Regional Court, Nürnberg. In the same year, he received his doctoral degree from the University of Regensburg. After working at that university as a part time assistant until 1990, Dr. Gressmann was Judge at the District Court of Traunstein from 1990 to 1991. In 1992 he became Public Prosecutor, seconded to the Federal Ministry of Justice (Division “Family Law”) in Bonn.
Since 1995 Dr. Gressmann holds the position of Regierungsdirektor at the Federal Ministry of Justice (i.a. Division “Law relating to Lawyers, Patent Lawyers and Notaries”). Since 2000 he is the Head of the Division “Law relating to the Judiciary; Remuneration; Training” in Berlin.
In addition, Dr. Gressman has been serving as a member of the Steering Committee of the European Judicial Training Network since 2001. He is also a member of the Judicial Examination Board in Brandenburg (since 1999) and Berlin-Brandenburg (since 2005).
Ulrich Grothus
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
Ulrich Grothus has been the Director of the North America Office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in New York since September 2004. He studied Political Science, and German Language and Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, where he received his Diplom in Political Science in 1976. From 1976-1982, he worked as a journalist and then joined the international division of the West German Rectors Conference. In 1988, he moved to DAAD, where he started as Director of the Office of the President. His subsequent posts at DAAD headquarters in Bonn included Program Director both for the Northern and for the Southern Hemisphere, Deputy Secretary General, and Director of the Division for Supraregional and Internationalization programs. In between, from 1998 to 2000, he served as Director of the DAAD branch office in Paris.
Martin Heger
Humboldt University of Berlin
Professor Heger received his legal education at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, which he completed with his First State Exam in 1994 and his Second State Exam in 1996. Afterwards, he was a scientific fellow at the Eberhard Karls University's Chair of Civil Law, Trade and Economic, European and Comparative Law from 1994 until 1997, and assistant at the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Philosophy of Law from 1997 until 2005. Since 2001, he has organized the Tuebingen International School of Jurists of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
In 2002, Professor Heger received his doctoral degree, for which he was awarded the Ph.D. Thesis Prize of Tuebingen University. Since 2005, Professor Heger is Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, European Criminal Law and Law History at the Humboldt University of Berlin. His main fields of research include criminal law and criminal procedural law (especially arbitrary measures in criminal procedure, their influence on constitutional law and ECHR on German criminal procedural law and selected aspects of victim’s protection), as well as modern German and European legal history, criminal policy of Germany and Europe, and economic and environmental criminal law.
Matthias Hoppe
Wilmer Hale
Matthias Hoppe received his degree in Public Administration in 1990. From 1991 to 1997, he studied law at the University of Bonn and Cologne before he received a Maîtrise in “Droit des Affaires” from the University of Lyon in 1995. He passed his First State Exam at the University of Bonn in 1997, followed by the Second State Exam in 1999 in Koblenz. He did a clerkship from 1997 to 1999 at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz and worked as an attorney from 1999 to 2006 at Flick Gocke Schaumburg. In 2002, he received the admission as Tax Advisor from the Steuer Berater Kammer in Berlin and in 2008 he obtained the certification as International Tax Law Specialist, also from the Steuer Berater Kammer Berlin.
Since 2006, Matthias Hoppe has given lectures at the University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft). He has been an attorney, at WilmerHale where he advises national and international companies on all matters of tax and corporate law. His practice focuses on assisting clients in the planning and implementation of matters involving combined issues of tax and corporate law.
Sébastien Lebel-Grenier
Université de Sherbrooke
Sébastien Lebel-Grenier holds an LL.L from the University of Ottawa, an LL.B also from the University of Ottawa, a D.E.A. théorie juridique from the Université Aix-Marseille III, and a D.C.L. théorie juridique from McGill University. He is professor of public law, vice-dean research and graduate studies, director of the common law and transnational law programs and director of international development for the Faculty of law, University of Sherbrooke, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. He teaches in constitutional law, fundamental rights and freedoms, tort law and transnational law.
He is director of the SoDRUS (pages.usherbrooke.ca/sodrus), an interdisciplinary (law, theology, anthropology, political science and history) research group who pursues funded research projects of the impact of religion and culture on the comprehension and representations of law. He also pursues research on fundamental rights and freedoms, federalism and transnational law. He is a member of the Quebec Bar.
Detlef Leenen
Freie Universität Berlin
Professor Detlef Leenen held the chair for Private Law, Commercial Law, Theory and Methodology of Law at the Free University from 1982 until his retirement in 2007. He continues to serve as the faculty's advisor for exchange programs with Common Law countries.
Professor Leenen received his law degrees from the University of Munich (Dr.iur, 1972; Dr.iur.habil, 1982). His teaching and research interests have been focused on general contract law and sales law, as well as legal theory. Professor Leenen has taught at the University of Miami and at Tulane and has been a frequent visitor to the University of Connecticut school of law. He was co-director and faculty member of the Tulane Summer School at Free University 1990-1995. During his terms as Dean and Vice-Dean he was especially engaged in setting up the DAAD-sponsored chair for US-American law at the Free University's school of law.
Ursula Lehmkuhl
Freie Universität Berlin
Ursula Lehmkuhl is Professor of Modern History and Chair of the History Department, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie University Berlin. In June 2007, she assumed the position of First Vice President at Freie University Berlin, her portfolio including international cooperation and student exchanges.
Ursula Lehmkuhl teaches nineteenth century American cultural and social history, twentieth century American and Canadian diplomatic history and the history of American and Canadian foreign relations. A publisher and editor of several books, her research interests include German Immigrant Letters, 19th and 20th century, the history of Anglo-American relations during the 19th century, Canadian-American relations after September 11 and Colonial Governance in British and French North America.
Ursula Lehmkuhl studied History, French and Comparative Literature at Siegen and Bochum, at the latter she also earned her doctorate in 1990. Prior to joining the John F. Kennedy Institute, she held professorships at universities in Bochum, Constance, and Erfurt. Her past administrative positions included Director of the John F. Kennedy Institute and Vice President for Research and International Relations at the University of Erfurt.
She is Coordinator of the Center of Area Studies at Freie University Berlin and member of the Executive Board of the Graduate School “North American Studies” at the Kennedy Institute. She co-heads the Transatlantic Graduate School “History and Culture of Metropolises” and is Co-Director of the Collaborative Research Center “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Modes of Governance?”. Ursula Lehmkuhl has consulted governmental and non-governmental organisations on various occasions, she is editor of the Publications of the German Association of British Studies, Vice President of the Council of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and member of executive boards of various academic associations, including the German Association for American Studies and the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries. Together with Britta Baron, she developed the Transatlantic Degree Programs (TDP) Project in 2005 which they jointly coordinate.
Carl C. Monk
Association of American Law Schools
Carl C Monk is Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Association of American Law Schools, a position he has held since 1992. He is on leave from the position of Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University, where he also served as Dean for ten years. His primary teaching and research is in the field of Constitutional Law, with a particular emphasis on “The Press and the First Amendment.” He received his B.A. from Oklahoma State University and his J.D. from Howard University School of Law. As chief executive officer of the Association, he has spoken throughout the world on the role of voluntary associations in improving the quality of legal education and the legal profession. He currently serves as the founding President of the International Association of Law Schools. He teaches a Comparative Media Law course at the American University, Washington College of Law. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii School of Law, and a visiting scholar at Brooklyn Law School.
Wendy C. Perdue
Georgetown University
Professor Perdue is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Professor of Law. She oversees Georgetown's LL.M. program - one of the largest in the U.S. Before joining the Law Center faculty, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was an associate with the D.C. firm of Hogan & Hartson. She teaches Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, and U.S. Legal Methods, a course that introduces the U.S. legal system to foreign educated LL.M. students. Her publications include two books, Conflict of Laws: American, Comparative, International (co-authored with Symeonides & von Mehren) and Civil Procedure: Cases, Materials, and Questions (co-authored with Freer) as well as numerous articles in the fields of civil procedure and conflict of laws. She also writes and lectures on issues concerning land use and its relation to public health.
Wayne Renke
University of Alberta
Professor Renke holds a B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Alberta, an LL. B., also from the University of Alberta, and an LL. M. from Osgoode Hall Law School. He was in private practice for several years before joining the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 1993. He teaches Evidence and Criminal Law, and has taught Law and Terrorism, Privacy Law, Intellectual Property, and Jurisprudence. He was the Faculty’s 2001 Tevie Miller Teaching Excellence Award recipient. Professor Renke’s publications and research have concerned criminal procedure, sexual assault, public health and criminal law, judicial independence, privacy, and counter-terrorism. His research currently focuses on counter-terrorism issues.
Professor Renke has served as President of the Association of Academic Staff of the University of Alberta (1999), Special Advisor to the Provost of the University (2000 - 2003), and Associate Dean (Graduate Studies and Research) of the Faculty of Law (2004 - 2005). From 2005 - 2007 he served as the Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Law, and he is currently the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law. He was a member of the University’s 2005 Inter-Institutional Degrees Task Force.
Professor Renke is a member of the Board of the Alberta Law Reform Institute and is counsel to the Criminal Rules Working Group of the Institute’s Rules of Court project. He has been a member of the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers and a member of the Executive of the Edmonton Criminal Trial Lawyers Association. He was a member of the Province’s Crime Reduction and Safe Communities Task Force (2007).
Eibe Riedel
University of Mannheim
Prof. Riedel is Professor of International and European Law University of Mannheim. He studied law and theology in the United Kingdom and law in Germany. He took a Ph.D. and postdoctoral habilitation at the University of Kiel and held Chairs at the universities of Mainz, Marburg and Mannheim. Presently, he is Adjunct-Professor at the University of Adelaide/Australia and Visiting Professor at several other universities.
He also is teaching International Law at the German Foreign Office Academy in Berlin. He is a member and former Vice-Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and has represented the Committee in the Open-Ended Working Group on an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR.
Prof. Riedel has written widely on international human rights law and in particular on economic, social and cultural rights.
Diego Sammaritano
EU Commision
Diego Sammaritano, is coordinator of education cooperation with industrialised countries, Directorate General for Education and Culture, European Commission. In this capacity he supervises the EU-US and EU-Canada cooperation programmes as well as the new cooperation programme with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. He has been in charge of the renewal of the education agreements with the U.S. and Canada. Together with the U.S. Department of Education, Diego has developed the new EU-US Atlantis programme focusing on transatlantic joint and double degrees. He holds a degree in Economics and Business Administration from University of Palermo (Italy) and a MA Degree in European Integration and Development from Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB, Belgium). He started his career in the European Commission in 1994 working in the Directorate General for External Relations as desk officer for trade relations with Japan. He was in charge of the Executive Training Programme in Japan and lately for the EU export promotion campaign Gateway to Japan.
Dr. Hariolf Wenzler
Bucerius Law School
Hariolf Wenzler was born in Stuttgart in 1967. He graduated in Economics (Diploma) and Political Science (MA) from Freiburg University in 1993. After research and work experience with the European Commission in Brussels and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Munich, he was granted Ph.D. in Economics from Freiburg University in 1996. He was economic analyst and later head of the marketing department at the Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg. From 2004 to 2006 managing director of Hamburg Marketing Board. Since 2006 CEO of Bucerius Law School. Hariolf Wenzler is a founding member of the Hamburg Law and Economic Society. He is married and has 4 children.
James P. White
Indiana University
James Patrick White retired in 2000 after 26 years as Consultant on Legal Education to the American Bar Association but continues to serve as Consultant Emeritus. The office is responsible for law school accreditation, collection of statistics, and interfacing with other legal education entities. He continues to represent the ABA in a number of international legal education activities.
Before joining the Indiana University faculty in 1996, he taught at the University of North Dakota School of Law and was a Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow in University Administration at the University of Michigan. He also taught at George Washington University National Law Center and the University of Iowa College of Law. He served as chair of the Advisory Committee for Fulbright Scholar Awards in Law. He served as Dean for Academic Planning and Development for IUPUI from 1973 to 1978. He is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a life member of the American Law Institute, a distinguished fellow of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation and a life member of the Order of the Coif. He has received honorary degrees from the following institutions during the past two decades: LL.D., 1984, University of the Pacific; LL.D., 1989, John Marshall Law School; LL.D., 1989, Widener University; JurD., 1991, Whittier School of Law; LL.D., 1993, Campbell University; LL.D., 1995, Southwestern University; LL.D., 1995, Quinnipiac College; LL.D., 1997, California Western; LL.D., 1999, Roger Williams University; LL.D., 2001 New England School of Law; LL.D., 2001, Seattle University; LL.D., Western New England College, 2002; L.H.D., Barry University, 2005. Commissioner, China-United States Commission on Legal Education.
The Association of American Law Schools, the Law School Admission Council, the ABA Central and Eastern European Law Initiative and the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association passed special resolutions of appreciation for his leadership in legal education. The American Bar Association and friends have established an annual endowed lecture on legal education at the law school in his honor.
James White has published widely on legal education, his most recent article in the Indiana Law Journal focussing on the effects of globalization: A Look at Legal Education: The Globalization of American Legal Education, 32 Ind Law Jr. No. 2 at 1285 (2007).
Peer Zumbansen
Osgoode Hall Law School
Professor Peer Zumbansen holds the Canada Research Chair for the Transnational and Comparative Law of Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School. He is Founder and Director of the CLPE (Comparative Research in Law and Political Economy) Network (www.comparativeresearch.net) at Osgoode Hall Law School and of the Critical Research Laboratory for multimedia projects on global cities (CRL). Since July 2007, he is Associate Dean for Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations. In 2005-2006, Professor Zumbansen was member of Osgoode’s Curriculum Reform Group for the First-Year Program, in 2008-2009 he is one of three faculty members on the Reform Group for the Upper-Year Curriculum Program.
Professor Zumbansen teaches the upper-year course in “Business Associations”, the first-year “Legal Theory Seminar”, “Comparative Corporate Governance and Political Economy”, the Graduate Research Seminars “Law and Economic Relations” and “Legal Theory: Transnational Governance”, and “Globalization and the Law”. He was the co-convenor [(2007-2008) with 2nd year law student, Danielle Allen] of the “Cities Research Methodology Reading Seminar [“The Reading Lab”]. He has been a visiting Professor at the University of Idaho College of Law, at Osgoode Hall and at the University of Bremen. He has authored books and articles in Private and Corporate Law, International Law, and Legal Theory. He is co-founder and co-editor in chief of German Law Journal (http://www.germanlawjournal.com). His current research focuses on comparative corporate governance, comparative law and legal education reform.