University Times

Ronald A. Brand, professor of law and founding director of the Center for International Legal Education (CILE), was named the Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg University Chair, effective Jan. 1.

Brand joined the School of Law faculty in 1982. His major areas of scholarly focus are international and comparative law, and he has published extensively in those areas.

Brand was the driving force behind the creation of CILE and the Master of Laws program for foreign law graduates.

He has received both the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1989) and Distinguished Public Service Award (2003). His impact as a teacher also has been recognized by School of Law students with the Student Bar Association’s Excellence-in-Teaching Award.

Brand is a member of the faculty advisory committees for the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the European Union Center of Excellence and the global studies program.

From 1993 to 2005, Brand served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Special Commission of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The commission was charged with negotiating a convention on jurisdiction and the effects of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters.

Currently, Brand is both an invited expert observer to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law working group on online dispute resolution and a member of the American Society of International Law working group on the implementation of the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements.

Brand succeeds Alberta M. Sbragia, the inaugural Nordenberg University Chair, who was appointed to the position in June 2006. Sbragia stepped down from the position last fall when she became vice provost for graduate studies.

The Nordenberg University Chair was created in 2005 to mark the 10th anniversary of Nordenberg’s service as chancellor. It was funded with $2.5 million in personal contributions from trustees, alumni leaders and other donors.

Nordenberg has said that the chair should be held by someone who has earned disciplinary distinction and has a record of institution building. In announcing Brand’s appointment, the chancellor said, “The quality of our international legal programs has become a distinguishing feature of our School of Law, and no one deserves more credit for that than Ron Brand. In all of his work, which has earned him respect around the world, Ron has placed students at the heart of his efforts and has found ways to effectively partner across the boundaries that too often divide disciplines, institutions, cultures and countries.”