Chapter 7

Keynote Address

Keynote Speaker: Professor Michael Reisman

DR. WEILER:  Welcome back.  I hope you all enjoyed your lunch. 

So, it’s certainly my pleasure to introduce Professor Michael Reisman.  So often we say the person needs no introduction, and this certainly is the case here, but I still want to introduce him because I just really enjoyed looking at all of the things that are on his CV and that are in various sources:  Teaching at Yale since ‘65; former president of the Inter‑American Commission on Human Rights; elected to the Institut de Droit International; honorary vice president of ASIL; former editor‑in‑chief of the American Journal of International Law; president of the arbitration tribunal of the Bank for International Settlements; and, of course, counsel, expert, and arbitrator in dozens of public international law cases and certainly many investment ones. 

In that regard, I’m very glad that people like Ian and I were able to force this whole field into the open publically so that we can actually read many of Professor Reisman’s opinions because they are now posted online.  It’s a real treat that we’re all able to do that, I think.  Other highlights from his CV include: the Manley O. Hudson Medal, 2004; Foreign Policy Association Medal, 2012; member of thirteen independent human rights missions between ‘87 and ‘01.  And this one is even better: Editor or co-editor of no less than twenty-eight books, as well as author of roughly three-hundred-and-forty-five articles and book reviews on international law; wide spectrum of experience in areas such as foreign policy, legal theory, international commercial arbitration, and an array of major subfields of public international law including, of course, international investment law, boundary disputes, administrative law, law of the sea, and law of armed conflict.  I just loved reading all of that.  You don’t usually get the chance to introduce somebody this illustrious.  And so, without further ado, Professor Reisman.

(Applause.)