With 63 member states, UNIDROIT seeks to harmonize law across the globe through international conventions and the production of model laws. Elon Law Professor Henry Gabriel was the sole candidate from the United States, having been nominated to the governing council by the United States Department of State.
The Governing Council of UNIDROIT supervises all policy aspects of the Institute’s work. It consists of 25 elected members, typically eminent judges, practitioners, academics and civil servants who are elected by UNIDROIT member countries. Gabriel, an internationally recognized expert in international commercial law, teaches Contracts, International Commercial Arbitration, Sales and Secure Transactions at Elon. He also teaches a course to prepare students for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, a prestigious international moot court competition held in Vienna, Austria that focuses on international commercial and arbitration law.
As a member of the UNIDROIT Governing Council, Gabriel is leading the institute’s working group for the preparation of a legal guide on contract farming. The group is developing an international framework for agricultural contracts to be used by agricultural producers, food processors and distributors in order to achieve more predictable quantities and qualities of produce, at mutually agreed prices. Such provisions will help to ensure the contract parties’ capacity to build stable, commercially sound and fair relationships. The provisions also help mitigate the imbalance of economic power between the contracting parties. This project is part of Gabriel’s endeavors for the past two decades to develop uniform commercial laws domestically and globally.
Gabriel regularly produces scholarship and advises national and international governing bodies on international commercial law issues. More information about Elon Law Professor Henry Gabriel is available here.