George Bermann

George Bermann is the Walter Gelhorn Professor of Law and the Director of the European Legal Studies Center at Columbia Law School. He is a leading figure in the study of European law, both in the United States and abroad. He is currently co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law (the country's leading comparative law review), former president of the American Society of Comparative Law, and the author of the leading US casebook on European Union Law (Cases & Materials on European Union Law, West. Pub., 2d ed.) [http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/George_Bermann Columbia Law : Full Time Faculty ] ]

Early Life and Education

Born in Massachusetts in 1945, George Bermann earned his B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a major in Political Science from Yale University in 1967. After studying law and comparative politics in England on a Marshall Scholarship, he attended Yale Law School, from which he earned a J.D. in 1971. After working at the New York lawfirm Davis Polk & Wardwell, he joined Columbia Law School's faculty in 1975. He is married to Sandra Bermann, Professor and Chair of the Comparative Literature department at Princeton University, and current President of the American Comparative Literature Association.]

Career

Bermann serves on the US State Department's Advisory Committee on the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments and the American Law Institute's (ALI) Advisory Committee on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions, including before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the OPEC countries, sovereign immunity and act of state (2004), the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Colombian practice in international arbitration and Andean legislation benefits (2002), and the House Committee on Government Operations on Tort liability of federal public officials (1983). Additionally, Professor Bermann has advised the National People's Congress of China on the adoption of a statute on government liability as well as one on an administrative procedure act.

Bermann was named Jean Monnet Chair of European Law by the European Union (conferred July 2001), served as Honorary President of the American Society of Comparative Law (conferred June 2005), was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (conferred November 2000)and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the American Foreign Law Association (conferred June 2005).

He is also a member of the teaching faculty of the College d'Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and also regularly gives courses at the Universities of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), as well as the Institut des Sciences Politiques ("Sciences Po") in Paris for its DESS en Droit de la Globalisation. He holds a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He taught as Eason-Weinmann Visiting Professor of Comparative Law at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, taught European Union Law at New York University School of Law, and been visiting scholar at the Legal Service of the European Commission in Brussels, the French Conseil d'Etat, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign Public Law and International Law, and Princeton University's Center for International Studies.

Among his major speeches abroad or on comparative law themes have been those at the French Supreme Court on the subject of "Comparative Law and International Law: Allies or Enemies?," at the European Court of Justice on "The Supreme Court's Role in Policing US Federalism," at the United States Supreme Court on "Le droit administratif américain et le droit administratif français," at the French Conseil d'Etat on the influence of French administrative law on US administrative law, at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on "Managing International Regulatory Cooperation" and at the Department of Justice of Canada in Ottawa on "Taking Subsidiarity Seriously."

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