Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law, Columbia Law School
The director of the Center for International Commercial & Investment Arbitration at Columbia Law School, George A. Bermann ’75 LL.M. is a world-renowned authority on comparative law, EU law, international trade contracts, WTO dispute resolution, and transnational litigation and arbitration. For more than four decades, he has been an active international arbitrator in commercial and investment disputes in all sectors, including general commercial contract, construction, intellectual property, energy, oil and gas, competition law, insurance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, distributorship and franchising, transportation, and employment. He also serves regularly as an expert witness before international arbitral tribunals as well as before courts in arbitral-related cases.
Bermann joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 1975. He founded both the Columbia Journal of European Law and the European Legal Studies Center, where he serves as the director. In addition to teaching full-time at the Law School, he is an affiliated faculty member of the School of Law of Sciences Po in Paris and the MIDS Masters Program in International Dispute Settlement in Geneva.
Bermann was the chief reporter for the American Law Institute (ALI) for its Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration, a 12-year project that was completed in 2019; it was the first ALI Restatement on this area of the law. Bermann is also co-author of the UNCITRAL Guide to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, chair of the Global Advisory Board of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), co-editor in chief of the American Review of International Arbitration, and founding member of the governing body of the ICC Court of Arbitration and a member of its standing committee.
Associate Dean for Research Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law Director, Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program, Vanderbilt Law School
Ingrid Wuerth is a leading scholar of foreign affairs, public international law and transnational litigation. She joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2007, was appointed director of the International Legal Studies Program in 2009, and was appointed director of the Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program in 2018. She was named to the newly endowed Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law in 2015. Professor Wuerth has served on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law and on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law. She is a member of the American Law Institute and was named as a Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. She has received numerous honors and fellowships, including the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Fulbright Senior Scholar award, the German Chancellor's Fellowship, election to the German Society of International Law, election to the Order of the Coif and many teaching awards. She clerked for Judge Jan E. DuBois in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and for Judge Jane Roth on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The class of 2018 elected Professor Wuerth to give the commencement address. She is a contributing editor at Lawfare.
Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Director of International Programs, Hofstra University School of Law
Professor Ku’s primary research interest is the relationship of international law to constitutional law. He has also conducted academic research on a wide range of topics including international dispute resolution, international criminal law, and China’s relationship with international law. He teaches courses such as U.S. constitutional law, U.S. foreign affairs law, transnational law, and international trade and business law. Since 2014, he has served as the faculty director of international programs, overseeing Hofstra Law’s study abroad, exchange and LL.M. programs. Professor Ku also teaches Constitutional Law in our online degree programs: Master of Laws in American Law and Master of Arts in American Legal Studies. He has also been selected as the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar and as a Hofstra Law Research Fellow. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
He is the co-author, with John Yoo, of Taming Globalization: International Law, the U.S. Constitution, and the New World Order (Oxford University Press 2012). He also has published more than 40 law review articles, book chapters and symposia essays. He has given dozens of academic lectures and workshops at major universities and conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia.
He co-founded the leading international law weblog Opinio Juris, which is read daily by thousands worldwide. His essays and op-eds have been published in major news publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the NYTimes.com. He has been frequently interviewed for television news programs and quoted in print and electronic media. He has also signed or submitted amicus briefs to national and international courts and served as an expert witness in both domestic and international proceedings.
Before joining the Hofstra Law faculty, Professor Ku served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and as an Olin Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Professor Ku also practiced as an associate at the New York City law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, specializing in litigation and arbitration arising out of international disputes. He has been a visiting professor at the College of William & Mary Marshall- Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia; a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Law at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China; and a Taiwan Fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. He is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
John C. Jeffries, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Paul B. Stephan is an expert on international business, international dispute resolution and comparative law, with an emphasis on Soviet and post-Soviet legal systems. In addition to writing prolifically in these fields, Stephan has advised governments and international organizations, taken part in cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts, and various foreign judicial and arbitral proceedings, and lectured to professionals and scholarly groups around the world on issues raised by the globalization of the world economy. During 2006-07, he served as counselor on international law in the U.S. Department of State, and in 2020-21 as special counsel to the general counsel in the Department of Defense. He was a coordinating reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.
Stephan received his B.A. and M.A. from Yale University in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1977. Before returning to Virginia, he clerked for Judge Levin Campbell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. He has taught as a visiting professor at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, the University of Vienna, Münster University, Lausanne University, Melbourne University, University of Pantheon-Assas (Paris II), Sciences Po, Paris I, the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya, Sydney University, the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, the University of Tartu’s Pärna College, and Liverpool University. He also has visited at Columbia Law School and Duke Law School, and served as a scholar in residence in the London office of Wilmer Hale.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stephan took part in a variety of projects involving law reform in former socialist states. He worked in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Albania and Slovakia on behalf of the U.S. Treasury and in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on behalf of the International Monetary Fund. He also organized training programs for tax administrators and judges from all of the formerly socialist countries under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. His casebooks on international business, international trade and investment, and Doing Business in Emerging Markets are used at law schools both in the United States and abroad. He is the co-author, with Robert Scott, of The Limits of Leviathan: Contract Theory and the Enforcement of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and the author of The World Crisis and International Law: The Knowledge Economy and the Battle for the Future (2023). His current research focuses on the legal issues related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and legal responses to the rise of big data.
Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law, Columbia Law School
The director of the Center for International Commercial & Investment Arbitration at Columbia Law School, George A. Bermann ’75 LL.M. is a world-renowned authority on comparative law, EU law, international trade contracts, WTO dispute resolution, and transnational litigation and arbitration. For more than four decades, he has been an active international arbitrator in commercial and investment disputes in all sectors, including general commercial contract, construction, intellectual property, energy, oil and gas, competition law, insurance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, distributorship and franchising, transportation, and employment. He also serves regularly as an expert witness before international arbitral tribunals as well as before courts in arbitral-related cases.
Bermann joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 1975. He founded both the Columbia Journal of European Law and the European Legal Studies Center, where he serves as the director. In addition to teaching full-time at the Law School, he is an affiliated faculty member of the School of Law of Sciences Po in Paris and the MIDS Masters Program in International Dispute Settlement in Geneva.
Bermann was the chief reporter for the American Law Institute (ALI) for its Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration, a 12-year project that was completed in 2019; it was the first ALI Restatement on this area of the law. Bermann is also co-author of the UNCITRAL Guide to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, chair of the Global Advisory Board of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), co-editor in chief of the American Review of International Arbitration, and founding member of the governing body of the ICC Court of Arbitration and a member of its standing committee.
Associate Dean for Research Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law Director, Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program, Vanderbilt Law School
Ingrid Wuerth is a leading scholar of foreign affairs, public international law and transnational litigation. She joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2007, was appointed director of the International Legal Studies Program in 2009, and was appointed director of the Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program in 2018. She was named to the newly endowed Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law in 2015. Professor Wuerth has served on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law and on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law. She is a member of the American Law Institute and was named as a Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. She has received numerous honors and fellowships, including the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Fulbright Senior Scholar award, the German Chancellor's Fellowship, election to the German Society of International Law, election to the Order of the Coif and many teaching awards. She clerked for Judge Jan E. DuBois in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and for Judge Jane Roth on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The class of 2018 elected Professor Wuerth to give the commencement address. She is a contributing editor at Lawfare.
Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Director of International Programs, Hofstra University School of Law
Professor Ku’s primary research interest is the relationship of international law to constitutional law. He has also conducted academic research on a wide range of topics including international dispute resolution, international criminal law, and China’s relationship with international law. He teaches courses such as U.S. constitutional law, U.S. foreign affairs law, transnational law, and international trade and business law. Since 2014, he has served as the faculty director of international programs, overseeing Hofstra Law’s study abroad, exchange and LL.M. programs. Professor Ku also teaches Constitutional Law in our online degree programs: Master of Laws in American Law and Master of Arts in American Legal Studies. He has also been selected as the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar and as a Hofstra Law Research Fellow. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
He is the co-author, with John Yoo, of Taming Globalization: International Law, the U.S. Constitution, and the New World Order (Oxford University Press 2012). He also has published more than 40 law review articles, book chapters and symposia essays. He has given dozens of academic lectures and workshops at major universities and conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia.
He co-founded the leading international law weblog Opinio Juris, which is read daily by thousands worldwide. His essays and op-eds have been published in major news publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the NYTimes.com. He has been frequently interviewed for television news programs and quoted in print and electronic media. He has also signed or submitted amicus briefs to national and international courts and served as an expert witness in both domestic and international proceedings.
Before joining the Hofstra Law faculty, Professor Ku served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and as an Olin Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Professor Ku also practiced as an associate at the New York City law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, specializing in litigation and arbitration arising out of international disputes. He has been a visiting professor at the College of William & Mary Marshall- Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia; a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Law at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China; and a Taiwan Fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. He is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
John C. Jeffries, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Paul B. Stephan is an expert on international business, international dispute resolution and comparative law, with an emphasis on Soviet and post-Soviet legal systems. In addition to writing prolifically in these fields, Stephan has advised governments and international organizations, taken part in cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts, and various foreign judicial and arbitral proceedings, and lectured to professionals and scholarly groups around the world on issues raised by the globalization of the world economy. During 2006-07, he served as counselor on international law in the U.S. Department of State, and in 2020-21 as special counsel to the general counsel in the Department of Defense. He was a coordinating reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.
Stephan received his B.A. and M.A. from Yale University in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1977. Before returning to Virginia, he clerked for Judge Levin Campbell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. He has taught as a visiting professor at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, the University of Vienna, Münster University, Lausanne University, Melbourne University, University of Pantheon-Assas (Paris II), Sciences Po, Paris I, the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya, Sydney University, the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, the University of Tartu’s Pärna College, and Liverpool University. He also has visited at Columbia Law School and Duke Law School, and served as a scholar in residence in the London office of Wilmer Hale.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stephan took part in a variety of projects involving law reform in former socialist states. He worked in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Albania and Slovakia on behalf of the U.S. Treasury and in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on behalf of the International Monetary Fund. He also organized training programs for tax administrators and judges from all of the formerly socialist countries under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. His casebooks on international business, international trade and investment, and Doing Business in Emerging Markets are used at law schools both in the United States and abroad. He is the co-author, with Robert Scott, of The Limits of Leviathan: Contract Theory and the Enforcement of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and the author of The World Crisis and International Law: The Knowledge Economy and the Battle for the Future (2023). His current research focuses on the legal issues related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and legal responses to the rise of big data.
Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County
George R. La Noue is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has served as a trial expert in twenty cases involving public procurement preferences. For thirty years, he was Director of the Project on Civil Rights and Public Contracts at UMBC which recently contributed 289 public contracting disparity studies to the Library of Congress. He has been a consultant to nine governments and trial expert in thirty cases where the validity of disparity studies was at issue.
Prof. La Noue can be reached by email at [email protected].
Author, The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls
Kara Dansky is a public speaker, writer, and consultant who is committed to protecting the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls on the basis of sex in law and throughout society. In addition to The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls, she published the The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender’ Agenda Harms Women and Girls. She currently serves as President of the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI), which seeks to promote the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights. She served on the board of the Women's Liberation Front from 2016 to 2020. Kara is also an attorney with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University, and an extensive background in criminal justice law and policy.
Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Policy Strategist, The White House
May Mailman is the Senior Policy Strategist in the White House. She is also the former Legal Director of the Independent Women's Forum. During President Donald J. Trump’s first term, May served as legal advisor, where she advised on a wide range of policies including healthcare, immigration, and social issues. While in the White House, she also worked in the office of the Chief of Staff and the Staff Secretary’s office. After the White House, May was Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Ohio and Vice President at Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE). Prior to entering public service, May practiced litigation in Denver. Earlier in her career, she taught sixth grade in Kansas City through Teach for America. May received a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Kansas. She also earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as President of the Federalist Society.
Author, The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls
Kara Dansky is a public speaker, writer, and consultant who is committed to protecting the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls on the basis of sex in law and throughout society. In addition to The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls, she published the The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender’ Agenda Harms Women and Girls. She currently serves as President of the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI), which seeks to promote the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights. She served on the board of the Women's Liberation Front from 2016 to 2020. Kara is also an attorney with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University, and an extensive background in criminal justice law and policy.
Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Policy Strategist, The White House
May Mailman is the Senior Policy Strategist in the White House. She is also the former Legal Director of the Independent Women's Forum. During President Donald J. Trump’s first term, May served as legal advisor, where she advised on a wide range of policies including healthcare, immigration, and social issues. While in the White House, she also worked in the office of the Chief of Staff and the Staff Secretary’s office. After the White House, May was Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Ohio and Vice President at Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE). Prior to entering public service, May practiced litigation in Denver. Earlier in her career, she taught sixth grade in Kansas City through Teach for America. May received a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Kansas. She also earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as President of the Federalist Society.
Senior Counsel, America First Legal Foundation
Nicholas Barry has been a senior litigation counsel at America First Legal since 2022. During that time, he has filed numerous lawsuits challenging lawless actions by governments and businesses. Previously, he litigated catastrophic malpractice cases, and before that, he litigated cases as an Assistant Attorney General for the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. He began his career clerking for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky for Judge William O. Bertelsman and was an associate at Stites & Harbison before joining the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School.
General Counsel, Mountain States Legal Foundation
William E. Trachman is General Counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, where he protects the rights of individuals to live freely and securely under the U.S. Constitution. Previously, he was appointed to serve in the Department of Education as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office for Civil Rights. Prior to his appointment, he served as General Counsel to the Douglas County School District, where he helped litigate the fight for school choice in the school district. Presently, Mr. Trachman serves as Chair of the Colorado Federalist Society and the Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Colorado Advisory Board. He previously taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. He attended U.C. Berkeley for both undergraduate and law school, and then clerked for the Honorable Harris Hartz on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Trachman is licensed in Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C.
Senior Counsel, America First Legal Foundation
Nicholas Barry has been a senior litigation counsel at America First Legal since 2022. During that time, he has filed numerous lawsuits challenging lawless actions by governments and businesses. Previously, he litigated catastrophic malpractice cases, and before that, he litigated cases as an Assistant Attorney General for the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. He began his career clerking for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky for Judge William O. Bertelsman and was an associate at Stites & Harbison before joining the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School.
General Counsel, Mountain States Legal Foundation
William E. Trachman is General Counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, where he protects the rights of individuals to live freely and securely under the U.S. Constitution. Previously, he was appointed to serve in the Department of Education as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office for Civil Rights. Prior to his appointment, he served as General Counsel to the Douglas County School District, where he helped litigate the fight for school choice in the school district. Presently, Mr. Trachman serves as Chair of the Colorado Federalist Society and the Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Colorado Advisory Board. He previously taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. He attended U.C. Berkeley for both undergraduate and law school, and then clerked for the Honorable Harris Hartz on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Trachman is licensed in Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C.
Topics
Does DC Have Standing to Sue the Federal Government? Probably Not.
If a house divided against itself cannot stand, then why would federal courts allow the...
Do Foreign States Deserve Due Process? “Minimum Contacts” and the Future of International Arbitration
George Bermann, Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk, Julian Ku, Paul B. Stephan
Devas v. Antrix considers whether foreign governments are protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process...
Do Foreign States Deserve Due Process? “Minimum Contacts” and the Future of International Arbitration
George Bermann, Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk, Julian Ku, Paul B. Stephan
Devas v. Antrix considers whether foreign governments are protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process...
The Widening Effect of Students for Fair Admissions
George R. La Noue
Federalist Society Review, Volume 26
Sitting at the top of the judicial pyramid, the Supreme Court makes only a few...
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What to Do With Dewberry?: SCOTUS Decides Dewberry Group v. Dewberry Engineers
This is a tale of two Dewberrys before the Supreme Court. Dewberry Engineers (“Engineers”), founded...
The Role of Language in the Transgender Movement
Kara Dansky, May Mailman
This program will explore key lessons learned on the role of language in shaping the...
The Role of Language in the Transgender Movement
Kara Dansky, May Mailman
This program will explore key lessons learned on the role of language in shaping the...
Topics
Supreme Court Justices Seem Favorable to Woman’s “Reverse” Employment Discrimination Claim in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services
On Wednesday, February 26, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Ames v. Ohio...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services
Nicholas Barry, William E. Trachman
Marlean Ames, a straight woman, was denied promotion and later demoted in her role at...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services
Nicholas Barry, William E. Trachman
Marlean Ames, a straight woman, was denied promotion and later demoted in her role at...