Keynote Presentations
An encounter with Ms. Louise Otis
The first keynote presentation will be delivered by Ms Louise Otis, followed by an informal interview conducted by Marika Giles Samson, McGill DCL student and O’Brien Fellow.
Ms. Otis graduated from Laval University, in Quebec and practised law for 15 years, specializing in labour and administrative law. In 1990, she was appointed as a judge to the Quebec Superior Court. Three years later, she became judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal. During her time there, she developed an internationally renowned program of judicial mediation which allowed litigants to meet with a judge for a mediation session where they would try to resolve their problem prior to trial. Afterward, she was invited to many countries to develop programs to train judges, diplomats and other civil society actors in mediation.
At the global level, Ms Otis has participated in justice reform programs in many countries. In 2007, she was appointed by the United Nations to redesign the UN’s system administration of justice with 4 other international experts. She created training courses in different countries on dispute resolutions and has spoke about this subject with many prestigious organisations, including the Council of Europe and the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
She is now President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), President of the Administrative Tribunal of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and Deputy Judge of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Administrative Tribunal (EUMETSAT). She is a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Mediators (IAM). She is also an Adjunct professor at the McGill Law Faculty.
Comparing legal comparisons with Professor Giorgio Resta
Is it possible to talk about the method of comparative law? Contrary to a widely held assumption, the identity of comparative law consists in the inherent plurality of its methods and its aims. “Comparing” has never been a neutral endeavour and to understand the challenges nowadays faced by the discipline, it is necessary to look retrospectively at its emergence and development. The aim of this address is to sketch an intellectual history of comparative law, tracing some major shifts in its leading paradigms, and advocating in conclusion an understanding of law as an inherent comparative process.
Giorgio Resta is a Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” and a visiting Professor and Senior Wainwright Fellow at McGill University where he currently teaches torts. Prior to his position at the University of Bari, he has been teaching at the University of Sassari, and as a sessional lecturer at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and “Roma Tre”, and the Public Administration National School of Italy.
Professor Resta graduated cum laude from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1995 and obtained his PhD in Law in 1999 from the University of Pisa under the supervision of Professor Guido Alpa. During the completion of his PhD, he had the opportunity to study law abroad, notably at Yale Law School and at Ludwig Maximilan University of Munich, and never stopped traveling since then. Indeed, Professor Resta is strongly committed to understand law within its political, social and economic context and speaks fluently English, French and German. Over the past ten years, he has been teaching law in several universities from various countries and continents, in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Germany, France and Japan.
He is particularly interested in the Italian, German, French and American legal systems, and has a strong interest in studying the relationship between freedom of contract and fundamental rights. He is the author of several books such as “Dignità, persone, mercati” and “Trial by Media as a Legal Problem: A Comparative Analysis”. Professor Resta seats in the board of directors and editors of several Italian top –ranked law reviews and is an associate member of the Centre d’étude des normes juridiques “Yan Thomas” (EHESS, Paris). He also acted as legal expert for the Italian State Secretary for Justice and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of a Legislative Committee established by the Italian Ministry of Justice for the reform of the Third Book – on Property – of the Italian Civil Code