20 January 1995, Geneva, Switzerland
Information on Speakers and Panelists
Mr. Gerald Aksen, a national of the United States of America, is Senior Partner of the law firm of Reid & Priest in New York and Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.
Mr. Aksen holds his first degree from the City College of New York, a Master of Arts from Columbia University and a law degree from New York University School of Law.
Mr. Aksen specializes in international commercial arbitration and has published numerous articles in that area.
Mr. Aksen is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and was formerly its General Counsel. He has been Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution and of the Arbitration Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, as well as of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association. He is a member of the ICC Institute of International Business Law and Practice and of the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
Dr. Marc Blessing, a national of Switzerland, is a partner in the law firm of Bär & Karrer in Zurich.
Dr. Blessing is a graduate of the Universities of Zurich and Geneva. He has been, since 1991, President of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and, since 1983, a member of its Executive Committee.
Dr. Blessing has extensive experience as counsel and as arbitrator in international commercial arbitration, in which field he is also the author of numerous articles.
Dr. Blessing is Co-Chairman of the Court of Arbitration of the Zurich Chamber of Commerce and a member of the London Court of International Arbitration and the WIPO Arbitration Council.
Francis Gurry, a national of Australia, is Director of the WIPO Arbitration Center.
Mr. Gurry holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Before joining WIPO in 1985, he practiced as an attorney in Melbourne and Sydney and also taught law at the University of Melbourne. At WIPO he has held positions in the Development Cooperation and External Relations Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, the Industrial Property Division, the Office of the Director General and the Office of a Deputy Director General.
He is the author of a textbook on the law of trade secrets and confidential information, entitled Breach of Confidence, published by Oxford University Press in the United Kingdom in 1984 and re-printed in 1991.
Dr. Gerold Herrmann, a national of Germany, is Secretary, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and Chief, International Trade Law Branch, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations.
Dr. Herrmann holds law degrees from the Universities of Mainz, Tübingen and Cologne in Germany and the University of California at Berkeley in the United States of America.
Before joining the UNCITRAL Secretariat, Dr. Herrmann taught law at the University of Cologne and was an Assistant at the Cologne Institute for Foreign and International Private Law. As a member of the UNCITRAL Secretariat, he has been Secretary of various Working Groups, including the Working Group which prepared the draft UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration.
Dr. Herrmann has written and lectured on comparative law, unification of law and international trade law. He is a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), the Arbitration Court of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Presiding Council of the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the Advisory Committee of the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Foundation and the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
Professor François Knoepfler, a national of Switzerland, is a partner in the law firm of Knoepfler Gehing Gabus & Partners in Neuchâtel.
Professor Knoepfler received his legal education at the University of Neuchâtel, the Center for Studies and Research in International Law at The Hague and the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany.
He is Professor of Private International Law and Comparative Civil Law at the University of Neuchâtel, where he was Dean of the Law Faculty in 1986 and 1987.
From 1967 to 1990, Professor Knoepfler was Chief Editor of the Annuaire suisse de droit international. He is a member of the Council of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, Chairman of the Swiss Association of International Law, a member of the Executive Committee of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) and a member of the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission. He has published numerous articles on private international law, commercial law and international commercial arbitration.
Dr. Martin Lutz, a national of Switzerland, is a partner in the law firm of Lenz & Staehelin in Zurich.
Dr. Lutz studied in the Universities of Berlin and Munich in Germany and holds a law degree from University of Michigan in the United States, as well as a doctorate from the University of Zurich.
Since 1985, Dr. Lutz has been Secretary General of the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI), an international non-governmental organization of professionals interested in intellectual property, which has over 8,000 members throughout the world.
Dr. Lutz has contributed a large number of articles to professional journals on legal subjects, particularly relating to intellectual property, and is a member of the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
Dr. Werner Melis, a national of Austria, is Chairman of the Arbitral Center of the Federal Economic Chamber of Austria in Vienna.
Dr. Melis holds doctorates in law and political science from the University of Vienna, as well as a diploma from the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States of America.
Dr. Melis is Secretary General of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), Vice-President of the London Court of International Arbitration, a member of the Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on International Arbitration and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the World Arbitration Institute in New York.
Dr. Melis is a member of the Editorial Board of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration, the Editorial Committee of Arbitration International and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of International Arbitration. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles on international commercial law and international commercial arbitration.
Mr. Jan Paulsson, a national of Sweden, is a partner in the Paris Office of the law firm Freshfields.
Mr. Paulsson holds his first degree from Harvard University, his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a DESS from the University of Paris. He is admitted to the Connecticut and District of Columbia Bars in the United States of America and to the Paris Bar.
Mr. Paulsson has published extensively in the area of international commercial arbitration, is the General Editor of Arbitration International and the co-author, with W.L. Craig and W.W. Park, of the leading text International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration, now in its second edition.
Mr. Paulsson is Vice-President of the London Court of International Arbitration, a member of the International Olympic Committees Tribunal arbitral du sport and a member of the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
Dr. Michael Schneider, a national of Germany, is a partner in Etude Lalive & Partners in Geneva.
Dr. Schneider holds degrees in law and history from the Universities of Munich and Bonn in Germany and Geneva in Switzerland, and is admitted to the Munich Bar.
Dr. Schneider has taught at the Law School of Geneva University and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and was, in 1987, Director of Studies at the Center for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations at the Hague Academy of International Law.
Dr. Schneider has published widely in the area of international commercial arbitration. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Construction Law Review and the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
Mr. Eric Schwartz, a national of the United States of America, is Secretary General of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Mr. Schwartz holds his first degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Yale University in the United States of America, and is admitted to the California and Paris Bars.
Before becoming Secretary General of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC in 1992, Mr. Schwartz was a partner in the law firm of S.G. Archibald in Paris, specializing in international business law relating particularly to international commercial arbitration.
Mr. Schwartz is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and has written, lectured and published extensively on international commercial arbitration.
Professor Albert Jan van den Berg, a national of the Netherlands, is a partner in the law firm of Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot in Amsterdam.
Professor van den Berg holds the degrees of Masters of Laws from the University of Amsterdam and New York University, and doctorates from the University of Aix-en-Provence and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. As Professor of law, he holds at present the arbitration chair at Erasmus University.
Professor van den Berg has extensive experience in international commercial arbitration as counsel and arbitrator, and was, from 1980 to 1988, the Secretary General of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, of which he is now Vice-President. He has written extensively on international commercial arbitration, including the leading text The New York Arbitration Convention of 1958. He is the General Editor of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration and The International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration.
Professor van den Berg is a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), the Court of Arbitration of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Commission on International Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Court of Appointment of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the International Advisory Board of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and the WIPO Arbitration Consultative Commission.
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