General Reports of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law. Rapports Généraux du XVIIIeme Congrès de l'Academie Internationale de Droit Comparé

Preface/Préface.- 18th Congress Steering Committee (Preface English).- General Reports.- 1. Religion and the Secular State/La religion et L'État laïque; Javier Martínez-Torrón and W. Cole Durham, Jr. .- 2. Complexity of Transnational Sources/La complexité des sources transnationales ; Silvia Ferreri.- 3. The Role of Practice in Legal Education/Le role de la pratique dans la formation des juristes ; Richard Wilson.- 4. Catastrophic Damages - Liability and Insurance/Les dommages catastrophiques - responsabilités civiles et assurances ; Pablo Salvador Coderch, Sonia Ramos González and Rosa Milà Rafel.- 5. Maternity for Another/La gestation pour autrui ; Françoise Monéger.- 6. Same Sex Marriage/Les mariages homosexuels; Macarena Sáez.- 7. Consumer Protection in International Relations/ La protection des consommateurs dans les relations internationales ; Diego Fernández Arroyo.- 8. Recent Private International Law Codifications/Les codifications récentes du droit international privé ; Symeon Symeonides.- 9. Class Actions/Les actions collectives; Diego Corapi.- 10. Cost and Fee Allocation Rules/Les règles de repartition des frais; Mathias Reimann.- 11. Climate Change and the Law/Changement climatique et la loi ; Erkki Hollo.- 12. The Regulation of Private Equity, Hedge Funds and State Funds/La réglementation des fonds speculatifs; Eddy Wymeersch.- 13. Corporate Governance/Le gouvernement d'entreprises; Klaus J. Hopt.-14. Financial Leasing and its Unification by UNIDROIT/Le crédit-bail financier et son unification par UNIDROIT ; Herbert Kronke.-15. Insurance Contract Law Between Business Law and Consumer Protection/Le droit des contrats d'assurance entre le droit des affaires et la protection des consommateurs ; Helmut Heiss.- 16. The Balance of Copyright/La mise en balance du droit d'auteur ; Reto M. Hilty and Sylvie Nérisson.- 17. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Matters of Intellectual Property/La competence etla loi applicable en matière de la proprieté

Karen B. Brown Before joining the Law School faculty, Professor Brown was a professor of law at the Brooklyn Law School and at the University of Minnesota where she was the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law for 1995-96 and received the Stanley V. Kinyon Award for excellence in teaching in 1997. At the University of Minnesota she also served as associate dean for academic affairs from 1995 to 1997. Before beginning her teaching career, Professor Brown was a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, and an associate at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. Professor Brown's teaching and scholarship interests are in the areas of income, corporate, and international taxation. She has co-authored a book on international tax transactions and co-edited a book on tax reform. She has written numerous articles and book chapters and delivered many presentations on federal taxation. Professor Brown is a member of the American Law Institute and the International Fiscal Association.

David Snyder David Snyder was appointed professor of law at the Washington College of Law in the fall of 2007 and was appointed director of the Business Law Program in 2008. He graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University Law School in 1991, and he has been a law professor at Tulane, Indiana University in Bloomington, and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He has also been a visiting professor at the law schools of Boston University and the College of William and Mary. After graduating from law school, Snyder served as clerk to Hon. John M. Duhé Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and subsequently joined the D.C. firm of Hogan & Hartson as an associate. Professor Snyder's teaching interests include contracts and commercial law, including their international and comparative aspects. He was chair of the Section on Contracts of the Association of American Law Schools (2005-2006) and is a member of the American Law Institutete and the International