Professor Susan-Bisom Rapp, the co-author of The Global Workplace. writes about her experience in Italy this spring:

During the third week in March 2007, I was honored to participate in The Fifth International Conference in Commemoration of Professor Marco Biagi, which was held in Modena, Italy.  Biagi, a world-renowned comparative labor law scholar, held the title Professor of Labour Law and Italian and Comparative Trade Union Law at the University of Modena, served as a consultant to the European Commission, and was a special advisor to the Italian government on labor issues.  He was murdered by the Red Brigades, at the age of 52, on March 19, 2002 for his important work on Italian labor law reform.  Five people are presently serving life sentences in Italian prison for that horrific crime.
 
Professor Biagi's work continues through the Marco Biagi Foundation at the University of Modena, the host of the conference.  My casebook co-author, the acclaimed international and comparative labor law scholar Professor Roger Blanpain (left in the photo), who serves on the
Foundation's International  Research Board and teaches at the Universities of  Leuven (Belgium) and Tilburg (the Netherlands), suggested that the theme of this year's event take inspiration from our book.  Thus, the theme of the Fifth International Conference in Commemoration of Professor Marco Biagi was "The Global Workplace: Learning From Each Other."  My co-author Professor Mike Zimmer (right in photo) , who teaches at Seton Hall University Law School, and I traveled to Italy and along with Roger gave keynote addresses during plenary sessions of the conference.  I spoke on the theme of European diversity initiatives, using the American experience as a touchstone.
 
It seems an exaggeration to say a conference can change one's life.  My experience of participating in this event has been exceedingly rich.  Gathering with labor and employment law scholars from around the world to honor the life and work of a man who paid an unthinkable price for his ideas was tremendously uplifting.  It was sobering to see first hand evidence of the dangers still faced by academics and reformers in Italy; the police were very much in evidence at the event.  A mass in Biagi's honor and the presence of his widow Marina at several of the conference events was very moving.  Yet what I took away from it all was a sense of collective determination to continue to think, speak and write about issues of tremendous importance to workers, and to join together as an international community of scholars and friends.

Note: The Marco Biagi School in Modena has adopted The Global Workplace for its Ph.D. students.