1. The association «LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH» and its organzation
In 2008 Dr Dr h.c. Thomas Cottier, professor emeritus of law, LL.M., attorney-at-law, senior research fellow, World Trade Institute, University of Berne, adjunct professor of law, University of Ottawa, and Dr Jens Drolshammer, professor emeritus of law, MCL, attorney- at law, University of St. Gallen, and faculty associate, Berkman Klein Center for internet & society Harvard University, initiated the project «The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture» and founded in October 2016 the association «LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH» together with a group of colleagues, all as members of the association, its board and general editors board: Professor Dr Urs Gasser (Berkman Center, Harvard University); Dr Peter Nobel, professor emeritus attorney-at-law (University of St. Gallen and of University of Zurich); Professor Dr Pascal Pichonnaz, LL.M. attorney-at-law (University of Fribourg); Dr Paul Richli, professor emeritus of law and past rector, University of Lucerne, former chairman of the association LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH and of the board of general editors (2015-2021); Professor Dr. Andreas Thier (University of Zurich); Dr Dr h.c. Daniel Thürer, professor emeritus, LL.M. (University of Zurich); Professor Dr. Franz Werro, LL.M. (University of Fribourg and Georgetown University); Werner Stocker, publishing advisor.
Thomas Cottier, Jens Drolshammer and Pascal Pichonnaz were also acting as editors-in-chief.
Since a restructuring in the middle of 2021, the board of the association and the board of general editors are composed as follows:
Board of the association: Dr Dr h.c. Thomas Cottier, professor emeritus of law, LL.M., attorney-at-law, senior research fellow, World Trade Institute, University of Berne, adjunct professor of law, University of Ottawa; Dr Susanne Leuzinger, former Judge of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court; Professor Pascal Pichonnaz, LL.M., attorney-at-law (University of Fribourg); Professor Andreas Thier (University of Zurich), chairman of the association LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH; and Werner Stocker, publishing advisor and treasurer.
Board of general editors: Thomas Cottier, Susanne Leuzinger, Pascal Pichonnaz and Andreas Thier.
Membership is open to all interested parties.
2. The parameters of the association «LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH»
The association «LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH» is a not for profit organization (scientific research and communications project) based in Zurich. Its aims are the exploration and presentation of the global dissemination and continuing internationalization of Swiss legal culture with particular emphasis on the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The association aims to promote interest in the influence and significance of the internationalization and globalization of Swiss law and Swiss legal culture by means of its online open source collection, www.legalanthology.ch, and a new series of English language publications. Furthermore, it aims to emphasize how Swiss law, Swiss legal process and Swiss legal culture meet longstanding challenges in an international context.
3. The editors of the clusters
The following clusters of the project are already available on www.legalanthology.ch:
- Public International Law, by Thomas Cottier, Isabel Koelliker and Jack Williams
- Globalization by Jens Droshammer
- Americanization, by Jens Drolshammer (book published Verlag Stämpfli AG, Bern, 2016)
- Europeanization, by Jens Drolshammer
- «Wirtschaftsrecht» in Switzerland, by Peter Nobel
- Information Law, by Rolf H. Weber (book published Verlag Stämpfli AG, Bern 2017)
- Philosophy of Law, by Michael Hebeisen
- International Intellectual Property Law, by Thomas Cottier
- The Swiss Federal Supreme Court and Constitutional Law in an International Context, by Susanne Leuzinger (book published in German Verlag Stämpfli AG, Bern 2022)
The following clusters are planned:
- International Criminal Law and Judicial Assistance, by Paolo Bernasconi
- Family Law, by Andrea Büchler and Michelle Cottier
- International Arbitration, by Felix Dasser
- Intellectual Property Law, by Jacques de Werra
- The Internationalization of Swiss Legal Professions, by Dominique Dreyer
- International Aspects of Swiss Contract Law and Historical Aspects, by Pascal Pichonnaz
- Public law, by Axel Tschentscher
- International Aspects of Swiss Contract Law and Historical Aspects, by Pascal Pichonnaz
- Sports Law
4. Involved people and institutions
The Anthology of Swiss Legal Culture is a collaborative project involving a number of people and institutions.
4.1 Biographies of Editors of already published clusters
Thomas Cottier
Thomas Cottier, former Managing Director of the World Trade Institute and the Institute of European and International Economic Law, is a Professor emeritus of European and International Economic Law at the University of Bern. He was educated at the University of Bern and was a research fellow with Professor Jörg Paul Müller in constitutional and public international law.
Jens Drolshammer
Jens Drolshammer was born in Switzerland in 1944 as a Swiss citizen of Norwegian and German descent. He studied Law at the University of Zurich (1964-1968). He studied in the Année d’Etudes Supérieures, University of Geneva, at the Institute for International Affairs of the University of Geneva and the Hague Academy of International Law (1969-1970).
Michael Walter Hebeisen
Michael Walter Hebeisen, born on 9th January 1965, after having studied violoncello and musicology at the Conservatory of Berne, followed his studies in jurisprudence at the University of Berne, with semesters abroad at the University of Cambridge. He graduated in 1992 and received his doctorate in 1994, after having collaborated with doctor father Peter Saladin.
Susanne Leuzinger
Susanne Leuzinger (born 1949) studied law at the University of Zurich (licentiate 1972, doctorate 1994) and was admitted to the bar of the canton of Zurich in 1974. After 20 years as an attorney in Zurich and specializing in insurance and liability law, in particular social security law, she was part-time president of the newly created Federal Appeals Commission for Accident Insurance from 1994 to 1996 (which was absorbed into the newly created Federal Administrative Court in 2007), and judge at the newly created Social Security Court of the canton of Zurich from 1995 to 1996.
Peter Nobel
Peter Nobel studied political science at the University of St. Gallen; he graduated in 1973 with a doctoral thesis entitled “The Harmonization of Corporation Law in the European Common Market” (Dr. rer. publ.). For the following 3 years, he was engaged as a research assistant to Prof. Dr. Arthur Meier-Hayoz at the University of Zurich involved in commercial and company law and for 1 1/2 years, he was a research scholar at the University of Göttingen with Prof. Franz Wieacker focusing on legal history in the field of corporations.
Rolf H. Weber
Rolf H. Weber (born 1951) is a professor of civil, commercial and European law at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a permanent visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong. He has also been visiting professor at the University of Strasbourg (France), the University of Leuven (Belgium) and LUISS University in Rome (Italy). His main fields of research are Internet and information technology law, competition law, international business law, international financial law and international trade law.
4.2 The Institute of European and International European Law, University of Bern
The Institute of European and International Economic Law is part of the Department of Economic Law within the Faculty of Law at the University of Bern. The Institute works closely together with the World Trade Institute – both in teaching and research. The two Institutes also share their premises.
The editors of the International Law section from the Institute of European and International Economic Law are Thomas Cottier, Director of the Institute and Professor for European and International Economic Law as well as Junior Research Fellows Isabel Kölliker and Jack Williams.
The editors would like to thank the other Research Fellows at the Institute of International and European International Economic Law, Patricia Gehrig, Katie Rüegsegger and Andrea Schläpfer for their support with the completion of the cluster along with Toby Frost from the World Trade Institute.
http://www.iew.unibe.ch/content/index_eng.html
4.3 The Institute of Public Law, University of Bern
The association «LEGALANTHOLOGY.CH» and editors work closely with the Department of Public Law, University of Berne, Switzerland. Axel Tschentscher, full professor of constitutional law and history and legal philosophy and engaged in comparative constitutionalism, hosts the project with his team and is responsible for uploading contributions and the technical maintenance of the site.
https://www.oefre.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/abt_prof_tschentscher/index_ger.html
4.4 H20 Project, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard University
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, with support from the Harvard Law School Library, has developed a Web-based platform — H2O — for creating, editing, organizing, consuming, and sharing course materials. With this capacity to develop countless customized electronic textbooks, the platform is envisioned to build a corpus of open-source materials available for dynamic use by faculty and students at Harvard and beyond. Piloted with legal casebooks.
Urs Gasser is Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School and the Executive Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Along with his team at the Berkman Center he has supported the editors in the uploading of The Anthology onto the H20 platform.