The International Arbitration Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London has great pleasure in announcing the forthcoming arrival of two very distinguished arbitration scholars. Both Professor José E. Alvarez, New York University Law School, and Professor Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, National University of Singapore, will join us as Scholars-in-Residence in 2012. Additional biographical information is provided below, as is the Group’s call for indications of interest regarding future Scholars-in-Residence. Gary Born, Chair of the International Arbitration Group, welcomed next year’s Scholars-in-Residence: “We are delighted to announce the selection of Professors Alvarez and Sornarajah as Scholars-in-Residence for 2012, both of whom continue our tradition of attracting the world’s most distinguished academics to participate in the life of the practice.”
Professor Alvarez is the Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law at New York University Law School where he teaches courses on international law, foreign investment, and international organizations. He is also a special adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on a pro bono basis. Prof. Alvarez was formerly the Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and the executive director of the Center on Global Legal Problems at Columbia Law School, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, an associate professor at the George Washington University’s National Law Center, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center.
Prior to entering academia in 1989, Prof. Alvarez was an attorney adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State where he worked on cases before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, served on the negotiation teams for bilateral investment treaties and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and was legal adviser to the administration of justice program in Latin America coordinated by the Agency of International Development.
Educated at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University, Prof. Alvarez has also been in private practice and was a judicial clerk to the late Hon. Thomas Gibbs Gee of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Sornarajah is CJ Koh Professor at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore where he specializes in international investment arbitration. He is also an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon, an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Singapore and a Solicitor of the High Court of England and Wales. He is an Honorary Member of the Indian Society of International Law, a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration and is on the Regional Panel of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
Prof. Sornarajah was the Tunku Abdul Rahman Professor of International Law at the University of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur and former Head of the Law School of the University of Tasmania, Australia. Prof. Sornarajah’s international posts include Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, Cambridge and at the Max Planck Institut fur Offentliches Auslandisches Recht at Heidelburg, Germany. He was International Law Fellow and Visiting Professor at American University at Washington DC, Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Petroleum and Natural Resources Law at the University of Dundee, Scotland, Visiting Professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Carleton University, Ottawa, the University of Malaya the World Trade Institute of the Universities of Berne and Neuchatel, Switzerland, Kyushu University, Japan, the Xiamen Academy of International Law, China, Fundacio Gerulaitis Vargas Law School, Sao Paolo, Brazil and at the Georgetown Centre for Transnational Legal Studies, London. He has lectured at the Supreme Court Judges Retreat at the National Judicial Institute, Bhopal, India.
Prof. Sornarajah studied law at the University of Ceylon, the London School of Economics, King’s College, London and Yale Law School. He was the Director of the UNCTAD/WTO Programme on Investment Treaties, Pretoria and New Delhi.
Call for Applications
The Group is now welcoming indications of interest for its Scholar-in-Residence Program for the academic year 2012-2013. Indications of interest are invited from all full-time legal academics, particularly in the fields of international arbitration and litigation, private international law, public international law, and comparative law, regardless of seniority or country of qualification.
The Scholar-in-Residence Program brings talented professors, lecturers and other academics from all jurisdictions to our London office to collaborate with our international arbitration team on both professional matters and academic projects and to contribute generally to the intellectual life of the office. A description of our International Arbitration Group is available here.
Visiting scholars are provided with an office, use of library and other research facilities, and secretarial services, as well as other assistance and support where appropriate. Specific terms and conditions, including with regard to the length of residence and weekly time commitments, are determined on a case-by-case basis in light of program participants’ experience and needs, and other academic and professional engagements. Past participants have included distinguished academics in the fields of international dispute resolution, international trade and public international law. Participants have been in residence for periods ranging from one month to nine months, with time commitments ranging from several hours per week to full-time.
Interested academics are invited to send their resume/CV to [email protected], together with a brief indication of preferred starting and ending dates of residence and contemplated time commitments. General inquiries regarding the Scholar-in-Residence Program, including for future years, are also invited.