The Embassy of Switzerland
and
Georgetown University Law Center
Cordially invite you to attend the first event in the series
Law in a Globalized World
Switzerland and the U.S.: Common Constitutional Roots, Different Legal Systems
How Do We Approach Transnational Legal Issues in Times of Globalization?
Moderated by
Franz Werro
Professor at Georgetown Law and at the University of Fribourg
Featuring
David Bowker
Chairman of the International Litigation Group at WilmerHale LLP
Jens Drolshammer
Co-Editor of The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture
Itai Grinberg
Professor at Georgetown Law
Wednesday, January 13, 2016, at 5:30 p.m.
Georgetown University Law Center
Gewirz Student Center 12th Floor
The Panel Discussion will be followed by a light reception
*RSVP here*: dmg99@law.georgetown.edu
The series – Law in a Globalized World
In a globalized and interconnected world, where movements of people, goods and services are constantly increasing, the law faces a series of challenges in fields as diverse as private law, international economic law, international humanitarian law or constitutional law. With the series “Law in a Globalized World”, the Embassy of Switzerland and Georgetown University Law Center aim to offer a forum for debating how these different areas of the law should deal with issues of globalization: how can non-state actors be regulated internationally, what is the future of the legal framework for international commerce and how can national legal systems be coordinated to deal with the increasing range of cross-border issues?
The panel – Switzerland and the U.S.: Common Constitutional Roots, Different Legal Systems: How Do We Approach Transnational Legal Issues in Times of Globalization?
The Swiss and the U.S. legal systems share many common principles and ideas; however, there are also several important differences between the two legal systems. With increasing points of contact between the two legal orders in times of globalization, how can they be coordinated to address cross-border activities? In this first panel of the series, a distinguished group of American and Swiss academics and practitioners will discuss historical and recent examples and possible ways forward when coordinating the two legal systems:
Franz Werro, Professor at Georgetown Law and at the University of Fribourg
Professor Franz Werro shares his life between the Faculté de droit of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Georgetown Law, in Washington, DC. He teaches and researches in different fields, including comparative law. Professor Werro also acts as an arbitrator and as a consultant in Swiss and in international commercial disputes. He has been a permanent member of the faculty at Georgetown Law since 2001. In January 2014, Franz Werro, together with Georgetown Professor James Feinerman and McGill Professor Helge Dedek, became one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law. Professor Werro is a co-director for Georgetown Law’s Center for Transnational Legal Studies (London) for the 2015-2016 academic year.
David Bowker, Chairman of the International Litigation Group at WilmerHale LLP
David W. Bowker chairs the firm’s International Litigation group at WilmerHale LLP and has a wealth of commercial litigation and arbitration experience, representing US and foreign companies, multi-nationals, foreign states and nonprofit organizations before international arbitration tribunals, state and federal trial courts, courts of appeal and the US Supreme Court. Before joining WilmerHale LLP, Mr. Bowker was an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the US Department of State and a graduate intern on the National Security Council staff. He recently completed a three-year term on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, currently sits on the Board of Governors of the Washington Foreign Law Society, and is also a member of the American Law Institute. In addition to that, Mr. Bowker is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Law, where he teaches Advanced International Commercial Arbitration.
Jens Drolshammer, Co-Editor of The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture
Jens Drolshammer is the co-editor of “The Swiss Anthology of Legal Culture”, a collaborative project that makes available a collection of classic and contemporary texts charting Swiss influences across various fields of law. Jens Drolshammer is a former professor of the University of St. Gallen, where he taught American legal culture, comparative law and the planning and structuring of commercial transactions. From 1975 to 2002, he worked with Homburger Rechtsanwälte in Zurich, Switzerland, as a founding and senior partner. From 1997 onwards he has gradually specialized and focused on the globalization and Americanization of law and the legal profession. In 1999 and from 2003 to 2009 Drolshammer was a visiting research professor and senior fellow at the European Center for Law Research at Harvard Law School. He also worked at the Center for Business and Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University.
Itai Grinberg, Professor at Georgetown Law
Professor Itai Grinberg’s research interests center on cross-border taxation, taxation and development, and U.S. tax policy. Professor Grinberg joined the Georgetown Law from the Office of International Tax Counsel at the Department of the Treasury where he represented the United States on tax matters in multilateral settings, negotiated tax treaties with foreign sovereigns, had responsibility for a wide-ranging group of cross-border tax regulations, and was involved in international tax legislative developments. Prior to joining Treasury, he practiced tax law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In 2005, Professor Grinberg served as Counsel to the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, where he advised a bipartisan presidential commission that made sweeping proposals to restructure the U.S. tax code.
