Start Date
27-3-2015 1:00 PM
End Date
27-3-2015 2:00 PM
Description
We are gathered here today as members and alumni of Golden Gate University School of Law, peacefully settled on the shores of the Oriental side of the Pacific Rim, sometimes known as the West coast of the United States. As is generally known, the ocean is named “Pacific” to introduce calmness, or to reduce the degree of calamity of this widest and wildest expanse of salt waters on earth.
I have been specifically asked to tell a story, in my own words, about the thinking of Thailand some fifty years back, facing weather conditions and the unseasonal political storms within the seemingly endless ocean that we in the region have chosen to call “PACIFIC” to avoid any trace of its “stormy” propensity. My primary task is to present to you a meaningful picture of Thailand’s vision and perspective as an indigenous occupant of the Pacific Rim.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Sompong Sucharitkul: Thailand on the Pacific Rim.
We are gathered here today as members and alumni of Golden Gate University School of Law, peacefully settled on the shores of the Oriental side of the Pacific Rim, sometimes known as the West coast of the United States. As is generally known, the ocean is named “Pacific” to introduce calmness, or to reduce the degree of calamity of this widest and wildest expanse of salt waters on earth.
I have been specifically asked to tell a story, in my own words, about the thinking of Thailand some fifty years back, facing weather conditions and the unseasonal political storms within the seemingly endless ocean that we in the region have chosen to call “PACIFIC” to avoid any trace of its “stormy” propensity. My primary task is to present to you a meaningful picture of Thailand’s vision and perspective as an indigenous occupant of the Pacific Rim.
Comments
Dr. Sompong Sucharitkul is currently Dean Emeritus of Faculty of Law at Rangsit University in Thailand as well as Emeritus Associate Dean and Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at Golden Gate University School of Law, San Francisco, U.S.A. He also directed Golden Gate Center for Advanced International Legal Studies and the LL.M. and S.J.D. International Programs, as well as the summer law program in Bangkok, Thailand. Professor Dr. Sucharitkul holds B.A. (Honours), B.C.L., M.A., D.Phil and D.C.L., from Oxford University, United Kingdom; Docteur en Droit from the University of Paris, France; LL.M. from Harvard University. He also holds a Diploma from The Hague Academy of International Law; and is a member of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, United Kingdom. Professor Dr. Sucharitkul holds a B.A (Honours), B.C.L. M.A., D. Phil and D.C.L, from Oxford University, United Kingdom; Docteur en Droit from the University of Paris, France; LLM from Harvard University. He also holds a Diploma from The Hague Academy of International Law; and is a member of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, United Kingdom.
Professor Sucharitkul holds B.A. (Honours), B.C.L., M.A., D.Phil and D.C.L., from Oxford University, United Kingdom; Docteur en Droit from the University of Paris, France; LL.M. from Harvard University. He also holds a Diploma from The Hague Academy of International Law; and is a member of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, United Kingdom.
He served as Director-General of the Economic Department and of the Treaties and Legal Department, and Principal Legal Advisor to the Government of Thailand. Professor Sucharitkul was the first ASEAN Secretary-General for Thailand during the years 1967-1970. He also served as Thailand’s Ambassador to Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg (BENELUX), and the European Economic Community (EEC); Japan; France, Portugal, and UNESCO; Italy, Greece, Israel, and FAO.
Professor Sucharitkul represented Thailand in the United Nations General Assembly for almost thirty years and served as Member and Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission for ten years. In 2001, he was appointed by the President of the International Court of Justice to serve as one of three members on the first ASEAN Investment Dispute Arbitral Tribunal; and was subsequently elected President of the Tribunal. Professor Sucharitkul also serves as Expert Consultant of UNESCO and UNCTAD. He serves more than fifteen years as Member of ICSID Panels of Arbitrators and of Conciliators; and seven years as United Nations Commissioner on Panel E3 of UNCC in connection with claims against Iraq for the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He is also an active Member of the Institut de Droit International since 1973.
Before joining Golden Gate University Faculty in 1990, Professor Sucharitkul held the Cleveringa Endowed Chair in International Law and Relations at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He was also Robert Short Chair Professor in International Law and International Human Rights at Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame; and the First Fulbright Professor of International Law and Relations at UNCC, North Carolina at Charlotte. He was also Visiting Professor of International Economic Law at National University of Singapore (N.U.S.); and Professor of International Law and Business Relations at Lewis and Clark College of Law, Portland. Professor Sucharitkul is also Editor and three-time National Reporter of the American Society of Comparative Law. He is Regional Coordinator of the American Society of International Law for the Western Region and is Editor of the International Legal Materials (ASIL) for the Asian Pacific Region and has extensively published in various fields of international legal studies in national and international journals of all continents.