NEWS RELEASE                       
February 5, 2008                

Thomas Jefferson School of Law Hosts Global Workplace Conference

Co-Presented by Seton Hall University School of Law & Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU

SAN DIEGO— Thomas Jefferson School of Law will host a path breaking conference on international workplace law, The Global Workplace: Expanding Intellectual Borders with International & Comparative Workplace Law, on February 15 and 16, 2008.

The event is co-sponsored by Thomas Jefferson School of Law's Center for Law and Social Justice and Center for Global Legal Studies, and Cambridge University Press. The conference brings together a distinguished worldwide group of legal experts and scholars, including keynote speaker and Distinguished Guest Scholar in Social Justice, Roger Blanpain, of the Universities of Leuven, Belgium and Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Participants can attend the live conference at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, or attend one of the VideoConferences being held at Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ or Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU, Baton Rouge, LA.

The conference focuses on the legal issues at the forefront of labor and employment law. The event is the first held in the United States aimed at teaching the teachers and others about global workplace law and its place in the law school curriculum. It will be valuable for labor and employment lawyers because the conference features prominent practitioners and professors who will help chart where global workplace law is today, where it appears headed and beyond.

"Globalization has transformed the way we think about the workplace, creating opportunities that have helped millions while presenting worldwide challenges that require coordinated and creative solutions,” said Thomas Jefferson Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp, the conference organizer, who is also the director of TJSL’s Center for Law and Social Justice.  “Law, whether at the international level, regional level or national level, has a role to play in this effort.  By bringing together top experts in the field -- from both the worlds of legal academia and legal practice -- gatherings like our conference represent a starting point for managing globalization so that its benefits are broadly shared."

International and comparative workplace law is today the cutting edge of labor and employment law practice and legal scholarship. Transnational enterprises have expanded the scope of their operations across substantial portions of the world. The reduction of barriers to trade and business across national borders has aided that expansion, creating for many large corporations a need for legal advice and strategies that encompass multiple countries.

Yet the growth of economic activity on a global scale also presents challenges to the traditional role of national laws as the mechanism for maintaining and protecting labor standards. International labor law, especially as promulgated by the International Labor Organization, has attempted to establish minimum labor standards that are to be adopted and enforced by all nations. In the face of global competition, however, there is a serious question of whether that approach can really secure protection for workers across the world. As a result, employee advocates and policymakers are developing new strategies that seek to fill the regulatory gap.

"I am honored and excited that such a distinguished group of scholars and practitioners will be gathering at Thomas Jefferson School of Law,” said Professor Bisom-Rapp.  “San Diego, poised on an international border and increasingly gazing across the Pacific to Asia, is a perfect place for deep discussion of international and comparative workplace law, the cutting edge of labor and employment law practice." 

For more information on the conference visit: http://www.tjsl.edu/GlobalWorkplace

The Conference will be held at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law campus at 2121 San Diego Avenue, in Old Town San Diego.

#  #  #

  
Keynote Speaker and 2008 Distinguished Guest Scholar in Social Justice:
Roger Blanpain

Dr. Roger Blanpain is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Laws of the University of Leuven in Belgium, where he was President of the Group of Behavior Sciences (1976-1981) and Dean of the Law School (1983-1987).  He presently teaches European and Comparative Labor Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands. He also teaches at the Belgian Universities of Hasselt and KU Brussels.  Additionally, Professor Blanpain has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Michigan State, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia (USA), Insead-Fontainebleau and the Sorbonne-Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Trier (Germany) and Sophia, Tokyo (Japan).  Professor Blanpain has served as President of the Belgian Association of Industrial Relations (1967-1997), President of the International Association of Industrial Relations (1986-1989), and Vice-President of the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security (1994-1997).  He is presently President of the Association of Educational and Scientific Authors (1998-), and a member of the Belgian Royal Academy for Sciences (1992-). Professor Blanpain is also the General Editor of the International Encyclopedias of Laws and of the International Encyclopedia of Labour and Industrial Relations. He is a co-author of The Global Workplace: International and Comparative Employment Law – Cases and Materials (Cambridge University Press 2007). He has published numerous other books and articles on European and comparative labor and employment law, and industrial relations. Professor Blanpain has represented the Belgian Government, as head of its delegation, in the Committee for International Investment and Multinational Enterprises of the OECD (1977-1987). He has been a member of the Belgian Senate (1987-1989). He has acted as a consultant for the European Commission, the European Foundation of Living and Working Conditions, the OECD, and the International Labor Organization.