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Photo: University of California, Berkeley

Jackson H. Ralston Professor of International Law, Boalt Hall Law School, University of California, Berkeley

American Academy Distinguished Visitor - Class of Fall 1999


Richard Buxbaum practiced law in Rochester, New York, and with the US Army before joining the Boalt faculty in 1961. He publishes in the fields of corporation law and comparative and international economic law, and since 1987 has been editor in chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law. Buxbaum founded and was the first chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for German and European Studies and Center for Western European Studies. From 1993 to 1999, he was dean of international and area studies at UC Berkeley.

 

Buxbaum was one of the five defense counsel in the criminal proceedings against the 773 members of the Free Speech Movement from 1964 to 1967; represented various campus organizations and individuals in cases arising out of Vietnam War protests; and was defense counsel in a large number of criminal proceedings that accompanied the Third World Strike of 1969-70, which was a factor in the development of affirmative action programs for student admissions on the campus. He was the first director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at Berkeley, serving from 1969 to 1974. His involvement with the National Housing Law Project goes back to its formation as a Backup Center for the Legal Services Corporation in 1969.

 

Buxbaum has served on various state and national committees engaged in the drafting and review of corporate and securities legislation. He is contributing editor to a variety of US and foreign professional journals and has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Michigan, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munster and Sydney. He holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Cologne, Osnabruck and Eotvos Lorand Budapest, and received the 1992-93 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Award for Humanities and Arts. Buxbaum is a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.

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