Samuel P. Baumgartner is Professor and Director of Faculty Research and Development at the University of Akron School of Law. He teaches International Law, Conflict of Laws, International Trade, and International Business Transactions. Professor Baumgartner has been admitted to the Canton Bern State Bar in Switzerland. Prior to joining Akron Law in 2004, Professor Baumgartner served on the faculty of the University of Bern School of Law in Switzerland. From 2001-2004, he was deputy head of the Section of Private International Law at the Swiss Department of Justice, where he headed Swiss negotiating delegations to the United Nations Committee of International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Hague Conference, and to various bilateral negotiations. He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Lucerne School of Law in Switzerland (2002 & 2004), Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law (2001), and Visiting Professor at Cornell Law School (2003). Professor Baumgartner received an LL.B., magna cum laude, and Dr. iur, summa cum laude, from the University of Bern, Switzerland; an M.A. in Legal Institutions and an LL.M. from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests are in international law, transnational litigation, comparative law, and comparative procedure, with a special focus on the intersection of international law and domestic procedure. Professor Baumgartner's scholarship has appeared in four books and in both U.S. and European journals.
Articles
Changes in the European Union's Regime of Recognizing and Enforcing Judgments and Transnational Litigation in the United States, Southwestern Journal of International Law (2012)
The European Commission has proposed to amend (recast) the Brussels I Regulation, which governs jurisdiction...
Switzerland, ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Society Science's (2009)
Switzerland has the traditional Austro-German representative association procedures. Debate on adoption of other models, given...
Class Actions and Group Litigation in Switzerland, Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business (2007)
Class actions have gone global. Foreign parties are no longer a rarity in U.S. class...
How Well Do U.S. Judgments Fare in Europe?, George Washington International Law Review (2007)
Transnational cases have become a prominent part of the litigation landscape in the United States....
Is Transnational Litigation Different?, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law (2004)
During the last fifteen years, there has been a growing interest in litigation transcending national...
Books
THE PROPOSED HAGUE CONVENTION ON JURISDICTION AND FOREIGN JUDGMENTS, TRANS-ATLANTIC LAWMAKING FOR TRANSNATIONAL LITIGATION (2003)
In June 1993, a small working group of the Hague Conference on Private International Law...
Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Outside the Scope of the Brussels and Lugano Conventions (with Gerhard Walter), Civil Procedure in Europe (2000)
Despite common roots, litigation practice in the various European countries can be remarkably different. Attempts...
Contributions to Books
Civil Procedure Reform in Switzerland and the Role of Legal Transplants, Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories (2010)
On January 1, 2011, Swiss courts will begin operating under a unified federal code of...
Other
Transnational Litigation in the United States: The Emergence of a New Field of Law (reviewing Gary B. Born & Peter B. Rutledge, International Civil Litigation in the United States (2007)). (2007)
In this essay, I review the fourth edition of Gary Born's International Litigation in United...