Faculty Activities

Summer - Fall 2018

Professor Lisa T. Alexander, Director of the Program in Real Estate and Community Development Law:

• Presented, “Tiny Homes: Bringing Home the Right to Housing,” and moderated the panel “Housing and Homelessness: Fresh Approaches to a Lasting Problem, at the 9th Annual Meeting of the Association for Law, Property, and Society at Maastricht University in Maastricht, Netherlands (June 1-2, 2018).

Professor William Byrnes, Associate Dean for Special Projects:

• Only academic invited to join the Cambridge Forums transfer pricing workshop held in Frankfurt, Germany, to share knowledge and develop relationships with hiring partners of global law firms, directors of multinational tax departments, and financial sector leaders.


• Byrnes and Dr. Lorraine Eden (Texas A&M Mays Business School) were invited presenters for the United Nations' biennial UNCTAD World Investment Forum in Geneva, Oct 22-26. Byrnes and Eden presented their co-authored policy paper, "Transfer Pricing and State Aid: The Unintended Consequences of Advance Pricing Agreements" accepted by UNCTAD as the lead article for its journal released for the World Investment Forum. Learn more.

• ​Served as a visiting scholar at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law in May 2018 as a WIPO expert. She gave a series of lectures on intellectual property and conducted academic exchanges with faculty and students. She also helped prepare students for international moot court/arbitration competition.

Professor Gabriel Eckstein, Director of the Program in Natural Resources Systems:

• Elected president of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA). He chaired the International Scientific Committee for IWRA’s XVI World Water Congress in 2017 and served as treasurer from 2010-2015. Established in 1971, IWRA provides a global, knowledge-based forum for bridging disciplines and geographies by connecting professionals, students, individuals, corporations and institutions concerned with the sustainable use of the world’s water resources. The IWRA is focused on improving and expanding the understanding of water issues through education, research and information exchange among countries and across disciplines. 


• Served as External Examiner for Ph.D. candidate Tamar Meshel on the topic of “International Law and Transboundary Fresh Water Resources: A Dispute Resolution Perspective,” University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (July 24, 2018).


• Presented “Managing Hidden Treasures Across International Frontiers: International Law for Transboundary Aquifers”, at the American Water Resources Association 2018 Summer Specialty Conference on the Science, Management, and Governance of Transboundary Groundwater, Fort Worth, TX (July 9-11, 2018).


• Led (with Professor Nancy A. Welsh) the global lawyering field study in Israel for Texas A&M law students, Intro to Israel: Water, Energy and Dispute Resolution (May 2018).

Associate Professor Guillermo Garcia:

• Presented comments on the International Law Association’s Rule of Law and International Investment Law Committee report during ILA’s International Law weekend in New York (October 18, 2018).


• Led (with Professor Randy Gordon) the global lawyering field study in Israel for Texas A&M law students, Scotland: Natural Resource Management and Dispute Resolution (May 2018).

Professor Randy Gordon:

• Led (with Professor Guillermo Garcia) the global lawyering field study in Israel for Texas A&M law students, Scotland: Natural Resource Management and Dispute Resolution (May 2018).

Professor Charlotte Ku, Associate Dean for Global Programs and Graduate Studies and Co-Convener of the Global and Comparative Law Program:

• At the Future of Humanity: The Challenge of Global Peace and Security conference presented by the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, Ku presented on the panel Leadership, Global Governance, and Peace with Dr. W. Andy Knight, Political Science, University of Alberta (October 2018).


• Played an active role at the 78th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association from August 18-24, 2018, in Sydney, Australia. Ku chaired ​the panel "Teaching and Education in International Law," was co-author and presenter with John Gamble of a paper on "The Challenges of Teaching International Law," and chaired the Open Working Session to consider the Final Report of the Committee on the Use of Force.  ► Learn more.


• Attended the Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System at Luiss University in Rome, Italy from July 11-14, 2018. As Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Dr. Ku attended both the Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings that preceded the Annual Meeting. At the Annual Meeting, Dr. Ku presented a paper on “Moving the United Nations Security Council from Collective Security to Global Security,” and chaired the Plenary Session on “State Responsibilities, Human Vulnerabilities: Mitigating the Consequences of Mass Displacement and Migration.”

Associate Professor Felix Mormann:

• Interviewed by Knowledge@Wharton to discuss renewable energy deployment in Costa Rica and beyond. SiriusXM Business Radio’s Knowledge@Wharton is a daily, call-in business interview program, broadcasting live from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (May 15, 2018).


• Presented “Equity Challenges in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Electricity Sector: A Comparative Perspective” at the 2nd Annual North American Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Conference at Houston Law Center (May 4, 2018).

Professor Timothy Mulvaney, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development:

• Presented “Property-as-Society” (forthcoming in the Wisconsin Law Review) at the Progressive Property Conference at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., on May 4, 2018; the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England at the invitation of the Cambridge Centre for Property Law on May 26, 2018; and at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Law, Property, and Society at Maastricht University in Maastricht, Netherlands on June 2, 2018.


• Presented a working paper, “The Property Crime of Trespass,” at the Property Roundtable at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland on May 30, 2018, and at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Law, Property, and Society at Maastricht University in the Netherlands on June 3, 2018.

Professor Meg Penrose:

• Visited the University of Iceland and served on a panel with a member of Iceland’s Parliament. The panel discussed Iceland’s pending constitution, which was drafted by a 25-person constitutional council composed of Icelandic citizens. Penrose was one of several co-authors on the Icelandic Federalist Papers that encourages Iceland citizens (much like the U.S. Federalist Papers) to adopt the pending constitution (October 2018). 

Professor Elizabeth Trujillo, Co-Convener of the Global and Comparative Law Program:

• Invited to speak at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) annual meeting in early January and discuss “Hot Topics” surrounding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (NAFTA 2.0).


• Appointed to the Advisory Council (now called the Council and Action Committee) of the International Law Section of the Texas State Bar Association. She will be assisting in outreach efforts of the Texas Bar abroad, primarily focused this year on Mexico and Latin America (June 2018).

Associate Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat:

• Presented “Patent Powers in India” at the 10th Conference on Innovation & Communications Law at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy (May 3–4, 2018).

Professor Nancy A. Welsh, Director of the Aggie Dispute Resolution Program:

• Presented a lecture at the "Law and Economics" conference hosted by Brazilian FGV Rio-Law School at Columbia Law School. Welsh discussed recent developments and trends in mediation and dispute resolution mechanisms in the United States on the Law, Economics and ADR/Mediation panel – a “hot topic” in Brazil according to conference organizers. Other conference participants included Brazil's Supreme Court Chief Justice Dias Toffoli and Justice Gilmar Mendes, Superior Appellate Court (STJ) Chief Justice Jaoa Noronha, and ten justices from the STJ (November 2, 2018).


• Made two plenary presentations at the Viadrina International Mediation "mediation moves ..." Conference 2018 in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. The conference was sponsored by the Master Program Mediation and Conflict Management of the European University Viadrina, the Master's Program on Mediation at the University of Copenhagen, and the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy at Singapore Management University. Professor Welsh spoke on “Regulation … the systemic death of mediation as we know/love it?” and “Mediation moves in the digital world – glimpses into the future.” She also led a workshop on empirical research regarding mediation and online dispute resolution (October 2018).


• Led (with Professor Gabriel Eckstein) the global lawyering field study in Israel for Texas A&M law students, Intro to Israel: Water, Energy and Dispute Resolution (May 2018).

Professor Peter Yu, Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property (CLIP):

• Delivered a keynote address at the Workshop on Private International Law and Intellectual Property at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Faculty of Law in Sydney, Australia. He also represented the American Branch at the 2018 International Law Association biennial meeting in Sydney in August 2018. 


• Delivered a series of lectures at the Hokkaido Summer Institute on the changing international intellectual property regime as a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Law at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan (July 17-20, 2018).


• Presented "Customizing Fair use Transplants” at a faculty seminar on "The Future of Fair Use Models" at the School of Law of the City University of Hong Kong (July 13, 2018).


• Presented "The Second Transformation of the International Intellectual Property Regime" at the opening session of the "Constitutional Hedges of Intellectual Property" Workshop at St. Anne's College at the University of Oxford in England. While at Oxford, Yu also commented on Ph.D. papers in a pre-conference workshop at Mansfield College. (June 25, 2018).


• Met with delegates from China as part of the “IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] Enforcement and Protection in the United States,” exchange program organized under the auspices of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (June 4, 2018).


• Presented "Data Producer's Right" and chaired the "Internet Governance, Fundamental Rights and Platforms' Interests" panel at the 10th Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law organized by the School of Law, Bocconi University in Milan, Italy (May 3-4, 2018).