The 2010 Otto L. Walter Lecture

The World Trade Organization After the Global Financial Crisis with speaker Merit E. Janow (Former member of the WTO Appellate Body, and currently Professor of International Economic Law and International Affairs, Columbia University)

Approved for 1.5 CLE credits in Professional Practice (CLE credits are free for graduates of New York Law School)
 

• Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2010
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: 185 West Broadway (Room W-202, 2nd floor). Click here for directions.
• Contact: Michael Rhee at (212) 431-2865. You may also send an e-mail to Michael.Rhee@nyls.edu
• Click here for registration materials: including RSVP and payment information. There is no charge for CLE credits for NYLS graduates. There is also no charge for students and members of the general public not seeking CLE credit. But registration is still required. 

As the World Trade Organization (or WTO) tries to push forward its latest round of global trade negotiations, it faces many challenges – from a world economy battered by a financial crisis to a public wary of efforts to reduce trade barriers to policymakers who question the effectiveness of the WTO and its system for settling trade disputes among member governments. How have nations responded to the recent financial crisis, and what are its implications for the world trading framework created by the WTO? What key legal challenges do the WTO and its dispute settlement system face in the years to come?

Professor Merit E. Janow of Columbia University – who served as the first woman judge ever on the WTO’s Appellate Body, which is the most powerful global court of final appeal in international trade disputes – will discuss these and other questions.

About Merit E. Janow

Merit E. Janow is Professor of International Economic Law and International Affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She is Director of the Program in International Finance and Economic Policy at SIPA, and Co-Director of Columbia's APEC Study Center. Professor Janow teaches graduate courses in international economic and trade policy at SIPA and international trade law and comparative and international antitrust at Columbia Law School.

In December 2007, Professor Janow finished up a four-year term as the North American Member of the Appellate Body of the WTO. For three years, ending in March 2000, Professor Janow served as Executive Director of the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee to the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice. This was the first such committee established by the Department of Justice to consider international antitrust matters.

Before joining Columbia University, Professor Janow served as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan and China at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington D.C. from 1989 to 1993. She was responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing U.S. trade policies and negotiating strategies towards Japan and China. Prior to her tenure in government, she was an Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, specializing in corporate mergers and acquisitions.

She is a member of the Board of Directors of Japan Society, Chairman of the Nasdaq Exchange LLC, a board member of the fund in the American Funds family and Trimble Navigation, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the China Investment Corporation, China’s sovereign wealth fund. Professor Janow received a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is fluent in Japanese. She is the author of three books and numerous articles.