The conference brought together 35 or so scholars, practitioners, and representatives of international organizations from 20 or so countries to present papers in their areas of specialized expertise. This conference provided information on multiple levels, including understanding the rules of the CISG, the application of the CISG by signatory countries, theoretical insights, and its use by international transactional attorneys. It included a presentation by Luca Castellani, legal officer in the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, on the substance and status of complimentary conventions and a presentation by Professor Claire Germain on the “Issues of Translation.”

Click here to view the Global Challenge of International Sales Law conference.

The conference will addresses issues of: Judicial Reform in Argentina; Current Directions and Solutions in Mediation; Teaching Comparative Law; Democracy and Privacy; A U.S.-Argentina Income Tax Treaty: Prospects and Considerations; Mercosur: Institutional Quality and Productive Integration; Economic and Political Rumblings in the Southern Cone: China, Doha, CELAC, MERCOSUR Expansion; Human Rights in Argentina; and Environment and Agriculture.

A detailed agenda and registration information are available at: www.law.ufl.edu/cgr/conference. The registration deadline is May 4, 2012. The Conference has been approved for 18.50 CLER Credits from The Florida Bar.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA – Experts from the United States, Costa Rica and the Americas will gather here Thursday-Saturday for the fifth annual University of Florida Levin College of Law conference on “Legal & Policy Issues in the Americas.”

Hosted by the University of Costa Rica Faculty of Law at the Marriott Hotel, the event is organized by the UF law school’s Center for Governmental Responsibility and will feature three general sessions and six workshops on such issues as economic integration in the hemisphere, proportional response under rule of law to organized crime and terrorism, human right to property and sustainable development, conflict resolution and legal education and professionalism.

Keynote speaker Friday evening will be Sonia Picado Sotela, president of InterAmerican Human Rights Institute and former InterAmerican Human Rights Court judge and past dean of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) law school. Others presenting remarks that day include Douglas Barnes, deputy chief of mission, U.S. Embassy, Costa Rica; Hermann L. Faith, executive director, Costa Rica-U.S. Foundation for Cooperation; and Yamileth Gonzalez, rector, and Rafael Gonzalez Ballar, law school dean, UCR.

Workshop speakers will include Jose Miguel Alfaro, former vice president of Costa Rica and now deputy high justice on the Supreme Court of Justice; Adrian Jorge Makuc of the Agrentina Ministry of Economy; Dennis Jett, UF International Center dean and former U.S. ambassador to Peru and Mozambique; Carmen Diana Deere, director, Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies of the University of Massachusetts; Buddy MacKay Jr., past Florida governor and lieutenant governor and former Special Envoy for the Americas representing the U.S. president; Josh Markus of Carlton Fields P.A., Miami, and chair of the American Bar Association’s section of international law and practice; and Elizabeth Jenkins, magistrate judge, U.S. District Court, Florida.

Presentation of the Jon Mills Award for “Significant Contributions to Relations Between Florida and the Americas” will be made at the Friday banquet. Last year’s winner was Paulo Roberto Pereira de Souza of Maringa, Brazil, with the award going in 2002 to Alejandro Ogarrio, Mexico City, Mexico; 2001 to MacKay, Ocala, Fla.; and 2000 to Raul E. Valdes-Fauli, Miami, Fla. Mills, dean emeritus of the UF law school, is founding director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility, former Florida speaker of the house, and was instrumental in initiating UF law school programs and activities in the Americas.

In addition to the UF law school and UCR Faculty of Law, others sponsoring this week’s event are Costa Rica-USA Foundation, Center for International Business Education and Research of the UF Warrington College of Business, Upchurch Watson White & Max with offices in Florida and Alabama, and the Florida Journal of International Law.

Additional information: JoAnn Klein, CGR Development Director, 352.392.2237 / eMail: klein@law.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Prominent national spokesmen and legal educators will be featured here Saturday as a University of Florida Levin College of Law student group holds a conference on implications of a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas statute making it a crime for same-sex persons to engage in sexual conduct.

Scheduled for 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., in Holland Hall law school auditorium by the Lambda Legal Alliance student organization, the event is entitled, “Re-Framing the Debate: Legal and Social Implications of ‘Lawrence v. Texas’ in the areas of Gay Marriage, Florida’s Gay Adoption Ban and U.S. Military Policy.”

Speakers will include Karen Doering, National Center for Lesbian Rights; Gary Scott Edinger, North Florida Chapter, American Civil Liberties Union; Assistant Professors Dr. Scott Ryan, Florida State University, and Dr. Aaron Belkin, University of California-Santa Barbara; Grant Ford, pastor, Sunshine Cathedral; Jeff Cleghorn, director, Military Education Initiative; and Alison Nathan of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., representing Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Also participating will be UF law school’s Professor Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, David H. Levin Chair in Family Law; Levin Mabie & Levin Professor Berta Hernandez-Truyol; Professor Diane H. Mazur, and Associate Professor Danaya C. Wright.

For additional information:

Lambda Legal Alliance: lambdaUF@ufl.edu (President Diane Dick)
Faculty Sponsor Danaya Wright: 352.392.5004

GAINESVILLE, Fla – Cruelty against children and its causes and prevention will be the focus of hundreds of participants here Thursday and Friday as experts from around the world gather for a conference, “Children, Culture & Violence,” convened by University of Florida officials.

Where, how and why violence occurs in children’s lives will be discussed at the second annual conference of UF Levin College of Law’s Center on Children and the Law and co-hosted by UF’s Center for Children’s Literature & Culture. Conference sessions Friday are at the Gainesville Sheraton (2900 SW 13th Street), and will close with a keynote speech by Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead on “Stopping Youth Violence Before It Starts.”

Among topics to be covered earlier that day are Children and Commercialization of Sex and Violence, Violence and Nonviolence in Schools, Children in the Justice System, Violence Begins (and Ends) At Home, Impact of Emotional Violence, and Global Perspectives on the Culture of Violence.

The conference will open with dinner Thursday, and guided tours of “The Culture of
Violence” exhibit at the Harn Museum of Art.

“Those of us living in Florida hear almost daily about the tremendous statewide problem of abused, neglected and missing children,” said David H. Levin Chair in Family Law Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, director of the law school’s Center on Children, “but it is a global tragedy brought on because violence has become an integral part of contemporary culture.”

“We must find ways to arm our children to resist, survive and comprehend violence without succumbing to it themselves,” Woodhouse continued.

In addition to Anstead, other keynote speakers are Geoffrey Canada, president of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, New York, and recipient of the 1995 Heinz Foundation Award; and Ntozake Shange, poet and novelist, author of an Obie Award-winning choreo-poem and of a children’s book, Whitewash, adapted to film and currently being screened on HBO.

The conference is supported by UF’s Center for Humanities and the Public Sphere, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, France-Florida Research Institute, Harn Museum of Art, Institute for Child Health Policy, SHANDS Healthcare and Woodhouse Shanahan, P.A.

Additional information and detailed agenda can be found at http://www.ichp.ufl.edu/ichp

Contact information:

• Barbara Bennett Woodhouse (352.392.9001 or woodhouse@law.ufl.edu)
• John Cech (352.392.6650, Ext 285, or jcech@english.ufl.edu)