International business transactions will be the focus of the
Center for Business Law's fifth annual conference on commercial law
at New England Law | Boston.
"Selling Goods into Foreign Markets: Choice of Law, Risks of
Sales through Intermediaries, Human Rights, and Challenges of
Modern Payment Systems" will be the main topics addressed by
leading practitioners and scholars. The event will be free and open
to the public.
The conference will take place on Thursday, October 6, 2016,
12:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m., in New England Law | Boston's Cherry Room and
will be co-sponsored by the law school's Center for International
Law and Policy, the Massachusetts Bar Association, and the
Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest.
"This conference should be of interest to anyone whose practice
or academic interest involves the international sale of goods,"
said Professor Gary Monserud, the conference organizer. "We
anticipate a good number of practitioners in attendance, and
questions and comments from the audience have greatly enriched the
panel discussions in prior years."
The first panel discussion will address issues arising under the
Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods; legal
issues that can arise when selling through intermediaries into
foreign markets; and the arbitration of private disputes arising
from international sales. Panelists who plan to attend are
Professor William P. Johnson, director, Center for International
and Comparative Law, and the Summer Law Program in Madrid, of the
Saint Louis University School of Law; Philip D. O'Neill, Jr., Esq.,
who has taught arbitration at Boston University School of Law and
Harvard Law School; and Professor Michael P. Van Alstine,
co-director, International and Comparative Law Program of the
University of Maryland Carey School of Law. Dean and Professor
Emeritus Peter J. McGovern of John Marshall Law School will
moderate the discussion.
John F. Sherman, III, Esq., is general counsel and senior
advisor to Shift, an independent, nonprofit center for business and
human rights practice. He is also a senior program fellow at the
Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School,
and is chair of the International Bar Association's business and
human rights working group. Sherman played a key role in developing
the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,
which have far reaching implications for international and
commercial lawyers. Professor Lisa J. Laplante, director of New
England Law's Center for International Law and Policy, will guide
the discussion in this area.
The second panel will address current challenges with payment
systems and will feature Professor Sarah Jane Hughes of the Indiana
University Maurer School of Law; Professor Stephen Michael McJohn
of Suffolk University Law School; and Lorcan Tiernan, a business
lawyer from Dublin. Stephen Y. Chow, Esq., partner, with Burns
& Levinson LLP, and a commissioner representing Massachusetts
on the Uniform Law Commission, will serve as moderator.