Louise Ellen Teitz

Louise Ellen Teitz is a renowned scholar of private international law and international procedural law, she is also part of RWU Law’s founding faculty. From 2011 to 2014, Professor Teitz served as First Secretary at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, with her primary responsibilities focused on family law areas — including the 1980 and 1996 Conventions; as well as related projects on enforcement of family mediation agreements; the "Malta Process" (Sharia-based legal systems); cross-border parentage; unmarried couples; and relocation.

Professor Teitz's academic areas of expertise include private international law, international litigation and dispute resolution, international business transactions, international family law, comparative law, civil procedure, conflict of laws, international aspects of electronic commerce, professional responsibility, and antitrust.

She is a graduate of Yale College and Southern Methodist University School of Law. After law school, she clerked for Judge John R. Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law for several years with law firms in Dallas, Texas, and Washington, D.C. In addition to prior teaching experience at several prestigious U.S. law schools (University of Illinois College of Law, Washington & Lee University School of Law, Rutgers University School of Law - Camden), she has been on the faculties of the University of Konstanz in Germany and the University of Bern in Switzerland. Professor Teitz has taught at the University of Geneva, University of Bologna, and Catholica University in Lisbon, Portugal; has been a Visiting Scholar at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), in Vienna, and at the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in Rome; and lectures frequently abroad. Author of two books and numerous articles onher areas of expertise, Professor Teitz is currently working on a West Casebook entitledComparative Law with Peter Winship and a Second Edition of Transnational Litigation, her earlier treatise.

Professor Teitz’s law reform work has ranged from domestic state law to international State law. She has been a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Hague for the Judgments Convention and for the Choice of Court Agreements Convention, and is a member of the US Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. She has served as an expert testifying before the U.S. Senate, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe. Professor Teitz was co-reporter on the Uniform International Choice of Court Agreements Act, and serves as a Uniform Law Commissioner from the State of Rhode Island. She is active in the American Bar Association, having chaired several committees and divisions and served on the Council of the ABA International Law Section. She has served as an ABA delegation Observer to UNICITRAL’s Working Group III on Online Dispute Resolution. 

Professor Teitz is active in the American Bar Association, has chaired several committees and divisions and has served on the Council of the ABA Section of International Law.  She was a member of the ABA Task Force on Electronic Commerce and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She was a member of the United States Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law for the Jurisdiction and Judgments Convention and for the Choice of Court Agreements Convention and is a member of the US Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. Professor Teitz was also Co-Reporter on the Uniform Law Commission (NCCUSL) Drafting Committee on the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements and is a member of the American Bar Association and Uniform Law Commissioners (NCCUSL) Joint Editorial Board on International Law. She has also served as a member of the American Bar Association delegation (as an Observer) to UNICITRAL’s Working Group III on Online Dispute Resolution. Professor Teitz was appointed to be a Uniform Law Commissioner from Rhode Island in June 2015.  

Professor Teitz is a member of the American Law Institute, the International Association of Procedural Law (elected to the Council), The International Academy of Comparative Law, and  ASADIP;  is a U.S. representative to the International Law Association’s International Commercial Arbitration Committee and Committee on Protection of Privacy in International and Procedural Law; is on the Executive Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association; and is on the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.

Books

“Is the Service Convention Ready for Early Retirement at Age Fifty-Five? Or Can It Be ‘Serviceable’ in a World Without Borders?," in HCCH a|Bridged Edition 2019: The HCCH Service Convention in the Era of Electronic and Information Technology (The Hague, Netherlands: The Hague Conference on Private International Law, 2020)

“The Challenge of Accommodating Foreign Law in Domestic Courts,” in Private International Law: Contemporary Challenges and Continuing Relevance, edited by F. Ferrari & D. Fernandez Arroyo (Edward Elgar, 2019)

“Malta Process and Cross-Cultural Aspects in Family Disputes,” in The Child's Interest in Conflict: The Intersections Between Society, Family, Faith and Culture, edited by Maarit Jantera-Jareborg (Cambridge: Intersentia, 2016)

“Prospects for the Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements,” in A Commitment to Private International Law: Essays in Honour of Hans van Loon (Cambridge: Intersentia, 2013) (with Marta Pertegás)

“Where to Sue: Finding the Most Effective Forum in the World,” in International Litigation Strategies and Practice, 2d ed., edited by Barton Legum (Chicago: American Bar Association, 2012)

 “Implementing the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention for the Twenty-first Century: Providing a Viable Alternative to Arbitration,” in Visiting Professors all’Alma Mater: Lezioni alla Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell'Università di Bologna 2006-2010 (Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2011)

“Choice of Court Clauses and Third Countries From a US Perspective: Challenges to Predictability,” in International Civil Litigation in Europe and Relations with Third States, edited by A. Nuyts and N. Watte (Brussels: Bruylant, 2005)

“Where to Sue: Finding the Most Effective Forum in the World,” in International Litigation Strategies and Practice, edited by Barton Legum (Chicago, Illinois: Section of International Law & Practice, American Bar Association, 2005)

“The Story of Hilton: From Gloves to Globalization,” in Civil Procedure Stories, edited by Kevin M. Clermont (St. Paul, Minnesota: Thomson/West, 2004)

Transnational Litigation (Charlottesville, Virginia: Michie, 1996 & Lexis Law Publishing Supp. 1999)

Banking on the Act of State: International Lending and the Act of State Doctrine (Konstanz: Germany: University of Konstanz Press, 1985) (with Professor Carsten-Thomas Ebenroth)

Articles

Another Hague Judgments Convention: Bucking the Past to Provide for the Future, 29 Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 491 (2019)

Children Crossing Borders: Internationalizing the Restatement of the Conflict of Laws, 27 Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 519 (2017)

The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: A Realistic Competitor to the New York Convention? 10 New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer 47 (Spring 2017)(with Glenn Hendrix)

Determining and Applying Foreign Law: The Increasing Need for Cross-border Cooperation, 45 N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics 1081 (2013)

Complexity and Aggregation in Choice of Law: An Introduction to the Landscape, 14 Roger Williams University Law Review 1 (2009)(symposium editor)

Divergence and Harmonization in Private International Law, Common Themes, 101 American Society of International Law Proceedings 360 (2007)

The Hague Choice of Court Convention: Validating Party Autonomy and Providing an Alternative to Arbitration, 53 American Journal of Comparative Law 532 (2006)

Developments in Private International Law: Facilitating Cross-border Transactions and Dispute Resolution, 40 International Lawyer 505 (2006)(with Peter Winship)

Editor, International Legal Developments in Review 2005, 40 International Lawyer, Issue 2 (2006)(with Peter Winship)

Editor, International Legal Developments in Review 2004, 39 International Lawyer, Issue 2 (2005)(with Peter Winship)

Both Sides of the Coin: A Decade of Parallel Proceedings and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Transnational Litigation, 10 Roger Williams University Law Review 1 (2004)

From the Courthouse in Tobago to the Internet: The Increasing Need to Prove Foreign Law in U.S. Courts, 34 Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 97 (2003)

U.S. Mediation in 2001: The Path that Brought America to Uniform Laws and Mediation in Cyberspace, 50 American Journal of Comparative Law 181 (2002)(with Richard Birke)

Providing Legal Services for the Middle Class in Cyberspace: The Promise and Challenge of On-Line Dispute Resolution, 70 Fordham Law Review 985 (2001)

Acts of State and Arbitration, 3 Zeitschrift Für Zivilprozess International [ZZP Int] 477 (1999)