A number of recent developments in Europe emphasize the emergence of a more confident – and certainly different – European Union, and are mentioned here as a brief follow-up to the last blog entry.

The European Parliament in February vetoed an agreement between the U.S. and the EU Council of Ministers which would have provided U.S. intelligence agencies with continued access to information about international money transfers routed via the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift). Swift, a private company based in Belgium, facilitates approximately 15 million transactions a day. These involve banks located both within and outside the territory of the 27 EU Member States. Until January 2010, U.S. investigators were able to tap into this large pool of data in the context of counter-terrorism measures authorized by U.S. law. The company then moved its servers from the U.S. to locations in the Netherlands and Switzerland, and thus within reach of the EU data protection regime. Concerns about the low level of protection given to data privacy in the U.S. then prompted the intervention of European lawmakers, and will necessitate a new agreement which provides more safeguards for the privacy of EU citizens if U.S. authorities are to be given access to information held by Swift.

A second interesting piece of news concerns the tail end of the antitrust dispute between Microsoft and the EU Commission. Following a ruling of the European Court of First Instance, European users of Internet Explorer will be given an automatic choice between the 12 most popular alternative products, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari or Opera. Users can, of course, also opt to stay with the Internet Explorer. Microsoft had to deal with antitrust issues in the U.S. as well, but managed to avoid the harsh consequences it is now facing in Europe. Differences between the antitrust regimes on both sides of the Atlantic were also at the heart of earlier cases such as the GM-Honeywell merger a few years back.

Both the Swift veto of the EU Parliament and the web browser choice program demonstrate a growing determination and ability of Europe to go its own way in many commercially important areas. Public and private actors in the U.S. – and the lawyers advising them – must be aware of this trend if they wish to avoid unpleasant surprises in their dealings with the EU.

There is great concern about job opportunities for law school graduates these days. The continuing economic crisis is taking its toll on the number of fresh JDs who are able to secure their first employment within a reasonable amount of time after graduation. While this situation is unlikely to change for the better in the near future, there may be ways to improve the odds. An attractive portfolio of legal skills and specialist knowledge, practical experience via internships, and extracurricular abilities such as foreign languages are, of course, crucial. But it may also be time to think outside the traditional box. Many companies have large legal departments with interesting and very well paid positions; lawyers are needed in government entities and international organizations; and some opportunities may well lie beyond the borders of the United States, for example in the many chambers of commerce across the globe.

Some basic economic realities may also be worthy of careful consideration. The sheer volume of trade between the U.S. and the European Union provides a striking example.  This strange creature across the Atlantic is currently our largest trade partner, ahead of Canada, China, or Mexico. The volume of exports from Louisiana to the EU alone has doubled between 2004 and 2008. But there is more to this development than meets the eye. More assertive in the economic field than in foreign policy or defense, the EU is these days establishing and enforcing its own standards in many areas – for example antitrust rules, competition law, environmental standards, data protection, or product safety. Regulatory differences create frictions between the two transatlantic partners, but that is in fact good news for lawyers. Economic conflicts and diverging policy choices often translate into legal work – and compliance issues are today, not surprisingly, among the most important concerns for U.S. manufacturers and service providers involved in European markets. To exploit job opportunities arising from all of this, young lawyers need to demonstrate at least a basic understanding of the European Union, harness some fundamental comparative skills, and have the courage to engage with systems of civil law. Knowledge of a foreign language is also likely to help.

The Eason Weinmann Center will be hosting Robert D. Sloan, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Entergy, for a talk about international job opportunities. A lawyer with degrees from Michigan and Harvard, he has worked on both sides of the Atlantic, held leading positions in law firms and large companies alike, and is therefore exceptionally well placed to address the issues raised in this blog entry. The event is scheduled for February 23, 2010 at 5pm in the Faculty Lounge.

You have reached a space that is both old and new. Foreign, comparative, and international law are a core part of Tulane’s identity. The Law School has been an important crossroads for students and scholars from all parts of the globe ever since its creation more than 160 years ago. This webpage is, by contrast, just a few hours old.

We choose to go online today for several reasons – to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas across cultures, political beliefs, and international borders; to offer research tools for students and academics; and to make our expertise more accessible to private individuals, law firms, courts, governments, and international organizations. The most important reason, however, is to show how relevant comparative and international law is in legal practice today – for the commercial and business worlds, law firms, legislators, judges, NGOs, and international institutions. And for young lawyers who are interested in challenging job opportunities both within and outside the United States.

This blog will pursue these aims by reporting and discussing new legal developments and trends in a wide number of areas. Some will be closely related to the classroom experience, such as constitutional law, private and commercial law, public international law, or human rights protection; others may be more familiar to the world outside a law school, such as data protection, health care systems, campaign financing, or legal conflicts arising from the use of genetically modified organisms. Entries will involve places as distant as London and Singapore, Baghdad or Santiago de Chile; but we will also highlight how foreign and international law affects us locally – for example here in Louisiana. We hope to draw on commentators both within the School and Tulane’s wider academic community, and will invite practicing lawyers, NGO activists, judges, and fellow academics here in the United States and abroad to contribute.

The Center’s online presence is an exciting new meeting point for all interested in things foreign and international. Visit us regularly!