Date: 19Jul 2016
Harmonization and Modernization of Transnational Commercial Law: An Assessment
Professor Charles W. Mooney, Jr.
Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Visiting Scholar, Waseda University Law School
The lecture will assess the progress toward harmonization and modernization of commercial law during recent years. It will focus primarily on the work of the three international intergovernmental organizations that are the principal sponsors of projects in the field of transnational commercial law—the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HccH), the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). In particular, the lecture will take account of academic critiques of the processes for harmonizing commercial law through these organizations and analogous “private legislatures” on a national level. It will rebut the critical claims that these processes lead either to interest group domination or to abstract rules that provide great discretion to courts.
Prof. Charles Mooney Jr. is a leading legal scholar in the fields of commercial law and bankruptcy law. His book Security Interests in Personal Property (with S. HARRIS, Foundation Press, 2d ed. 1992; Supp. 1999; 3d ed. 2000; 4th ed. 2006; 5th ed. 2011; 6th ed. 2015) is a widely adopted text used in law schools around the United States. Mooney was honored for his contributions to the uniform law process by the Oklahoma City School of Law and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. He also served as U.S. Delegate at the Diplomatic Conference for the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the Aircraft Protocol and for the Diplomatic Conference for the UNIDROIT (Geneva) Convention on Intermediated Securities. Mooney also served as a Co-Reporter for the Drafting Committee for the Revision of UCC Article 9 (Secured Transactions), as the ABA Liaison-Advisor to the Permanent Editorial Board for the UCC, and as a member of Council and Chair of the Committee on UCC of the ABA Business Law Section.
The Hochelaga Lectures commemorate the life and interests of the anonymous donor’s father. Previous Hochelaga Lecturers have included Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin PC CStJ; Professor Gareth Jones QC; Professor Andrew Burrows QC; Professor Lawrence Lessig; Professor Martha Nussbaum; Professor K. Anthony Appiah; Judge Raul Pangalangan; Professor Madhavi Sunder; Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart; Professor Bruno Zeller; Justice Peter Roth; Chief Justice Diana Bryant AO; Justice Victoria Bennett; and Judge Huang Yongwei.
