La Faculté de Droit, d'Économie et de Finance de l'Université de Luxembourg organise le 29 mai 2012, de 8h40 à 10h30, une discussion à laquelle participeront Sandra O'Connor, de la Cour Suprême des Etats-Unis, et Koen Lenaerts, juge à la CJUE.

Programme

08h40 Arrival of U.S. Delegation at the University of Luxembourg

08h50 Welcome by Prof. André Prüm, Dean, Faculty of Law, Economics & Finance

Introductory Remarks by H.E. Mr Robert A. Mandell, U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg and Dean Harold Koh, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State

09h00 Judicial Perspectives on Comparative Judging in the Court of Justice of the European Union and the U.S. Supreme Court

Chair: Dean Harold Koh, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State

Participants: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (Ret.), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Judge Koen Lenaerts, Court of Justice of the European Union

Background

Justice O’Connor and Judge Lenaerts will take part in a discussion of a case from the other’s court, and will discuss broader differences and similarities in approach. The cases framing the discussion may include discussions on gender discrimination.

Sandra Day O’Connor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. She served for 25 years on the High Court, retiring in 2006. She was the first of four women to serve on the Court. Justice O’Connor is a native of Texas who grew up on a farm in Arizona. She received her law degree from Stanford University in 1952. She began her career as a Deputy County Attorney in California, then an Assistant Attorney General for Arizona, State Senator, Trial Judge and then a judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals before ascending to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor has written several books about varied subjects from her tenure on the Court, to her upbringing on the farm, to children’s books. In 2009 her accomplishments were acknowledged by President Obama who honoured her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Judge Koen Lenaerts, Court of Justice of the European Union Judge Lenaerts has served on the Court of Justice of the European Union since 2003. Prior to his appointment to the Court, he served on the Court of First Instance of the European Communities from 1989 to 2002. A native of Belgium, Judge Lenaerts received his Ph.D. in Law from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1982. He also holds a Master of Laws and Master in Public Administration from Harvard University. He has been a Professor of European Law at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven since 1983. He also served as a Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges from 1984-89 and as a Professor at the Harvard Law School in 1989. Judge Lenaerts has written extensively on European Union Law and constitutional law within the European Union.

Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State Harold Koh is Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State since his nomination by President Obama and confirmation by the US Senate in 2009. He is the Martin R. Flug Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, where he previously served as Dean. He also served in the Department of Justice under President Reagan and in the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under President Clinton. Dean Koh is a native of Boston and holds degrees from Harvard College and Oxford University. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has written extensively on the topics of international law, international affairs and human rights.