International Bankruptcy Course Adds Canada and Changes Course Leader
The College’s innovative International Bankruptcy course reached an important milestone recently when Western Law, a public law school in Ontario Canada, agreed to join the course. With the addition of a Canadian law school, the course is now shared by law schools in all three NAFTA countries, probably a first in legal education.
The course was already very unusual in that it involved eight to ten law schools annually that were linked together through audio and video over the internet in a shared real-time class. The course is sponsored and generously supported by the College, which provides the funding needed to bring the world’s leading experts in as lecturers. An internet bridge provided by the University of Utah, where Fellow Hon. Ralph Mabey is a professor, allows multiple schools to share the lectures and class discussions. A Mexican law school, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), where College Fellows Dr. Luis Manuel C. Mejan is a professor and Fellow Agustin Berdeja-Prieto is a lecturer, was already a participating school. The eight United States law schools expected to participate next year are Chicago-Kent, Georgetown, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, St. John’s, Southern University Law Center, and University of Utah.
The expansion to Canada caps off the term of course leader and Fellow Prof. G. Ray Warner of St. John’s. During Warner’s tenure the course was revamped to reflect modern trends in cross-border practice. Warner also added more Fellows, and a more diverse range of Fellows, as lecturers, commentators and instructors at the participating schools. At least 15 Fellows participated in those roles this year.
Next year, Fellow Robert (Bob) Lapowsky, will replace Warner as course leader. Lapowsky is the co-chair of Stevens & Lee’s Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Department and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught the course for several years. In addition, Penn, where Fellow Prof. Charles Mooney is a professor, will replace St. John’s as the course’s host school.
The course consists of thirteen weeks of video lectures that are presented live at one of the schools, with the other schools able to participate and ask questions using the internet link. The lectures cover the gamut of international insolvency law. The course begins with a series of comparative law lectures that introduce students to the insolvency systems of nine non-U.S. jurisdictions around the globe. The course then turns to cross-border practice with two lectures on the European Union Insolvency Regulation and four lectures on the Model Law, as embodied in U.S. Chapter 15. The course ends with a lecture of the use of U.S. Chapter 11 by non-U.S. entities.
If you are affiliated with a law school and would like it to join the consortium, please contact College Executive Director, Shari Bedker ([email protected]), or Fellow Robert Millner ([email protected]), Chair of the International Committee.
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