Lecturer-in-Law Pieter Bekker Edits New Transnational Law Book

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Lecturer-in-Law Pieter Bekker Edits New Transnational Law Book

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New York, Jan. 6, 2011—A new book that assesses the prospects of transnational law in the age of globalization was edited by Lecturer-in-Law Pieter Bekker, who teaches international investment law and arbitration at Columbia Law School.
 
The book, Making Transnational Law Work in the Global Economy—Essays in Honour of Detlev Vagts, from Cambridge University Press, pays tribute to Vagts, a noted legal scholar who pioneered a classic casebook, Transnational Legal Problems.
 
Bekker helped update the casebook while a student at Harvard Law School, where he received an LL.M. degree in 1991.
 
The term “transnational law” was introduced by Philip C. Jessup ’24, who taught international law and diplomacy at Columbia Law School from 1946 to 1961. It refers to actions or events that transcend national frontiers, and can involve individuals, corporations, or other groups—not just relations between governments.
 
The new book features 30 essays by professors, judges and lawyers from all over the world on an array of transnational legal topics, such as the protection of property and investment and the regulation of cross-border lawyering.
 
In addition to serving as editor-in-chief for the volume, Bekker also wrote a chapter entitled “Diffusion of Law: the International Court of Justice as a Court of Transnational Justice.”
 
Also contributing to the book is Olivier de Schutter, who last fall was the James S. Carpentier Visiting Professor of Law at the Law School. He wrote a chapter that advocates an international convention to combat human rights by transnational corporations.
 
Bekker is the head of public international law at Crowell & Moring in New York. A prolific writer and commentator on international legal topics, Bekker is internationally recognized for his World Court expertise, and focuses his practice on international dispute risk management and resolution.
 
 
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins its traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, criminal, national security, and environmental law.