Post date: September 24, 2002 — 4:30 p.m.
On Friday, September 27, Harvard Law School will host a symposium exploring law and justice in a multistate world. The event will be held in honor of Emeritus Professor of Law Arthur Taylor von Mehren’s 80th birthday. The symposium will feature discussions on each of Professor von Mehren’s four areas of expertise: comparative law, choice of laws, international jurisdiction and recognition of judgments, and international arbitration.
“Friday’s Symposium, will feature academic presentations and tributes from distinguished colleagues from all over the world. They will be here because of their respect, admiration and affection for one man, Arthur von Mehren,” said Harvard Law School Visiting Professor Peter L. Murray. “We hope that this occasion will serve in some measure as a fitting recognition for Professor von Mehren and his lifetime of accomplishment as a scholar of comparative and international law and a tireless worker for international dialogue and understanding.”
The first discussion, to be moderated by Professor James Nafziger of the Willamette Law School, will focus on international jurisdiction and recognition of judgments. Speakers will include Professor Fausto Pocar or the University of Milan and Professor Trevor Hartley of the London School of Economics.
This panel will be followed by a discussion on the choice of laws. Moderated by Dean Symeon Symeonides of the Willamette Law School, the panel will feature Professor Frank Vischer of the University of Basel and Profesor Richard Fentiman of Queens College, Cambridge.
The third panel will focus on comparative civil law and will be moderated by Columbia Law School Professor George Berman. Panelists will include Professor Denis Tallon of the University of Paris and Judge Konrad Lenaerts of the Court of First Instance of the European Community.
A speech on international arbitration by Alan Philip will be followed by a panel discussion on convergence in civil justice and dispute resolution moderated by Murray.
Born on August 10, 1922 in New York City, von Mehren graduated from Harvard College in 1942 and from Harvard Law School in 1945. In 1946 he was awarded his doctorate in government and was appointed assistant professor at Harvard Law School. Professor von Mehren spent the first three years of his more than 50-year career at Harvard Law School in full-time study of Swiss, German and French law at the Universities of Zurich and Paris. In 1953 he was named a full professor of law at Harvard and in 1976 assumed the Story Professorship. Since 1991 he has been the Story Professor of Law Emeritus.
The von Mehren symposium is jointly sponsored by Harvard Law School and the Story Fund.
For more information please contact Professor Murray at pmurray@law.harvard.edu or call 617-495-3136.