International Law Association Regional Seminar Series
Private International Law for Sustainable Development, Human Rights, and Access to Justice and Finance
Speaker: Dr Gérardine Goh Escolar, Deputy Secretary General, Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), Full Professor (Adjunct), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Private international law focuses on applicable law, jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement, and international cooperation mechanisms that build bridges between national jurisdictions. As mobility across borders increases and the world looks towards a future that is digitised, how can private international law contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development, the protection of human rights, and ensuring democratic access to justice and finance? This talk will address this question in relation to three fields: Family and Child Protection Law, Transnational Litigation, and International Commercial, Digital and Financial Law. What is the impact of private international law in building a future on the strength of bridges in the grassroots?
Dr Gérardine Goh Escolar is Deputy Secretary General of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Concurrently, she is Head of the International Commercial, Digital and Financial Law Division, which has oversight on the the HCCH 1985 Trusts and 2006 Securities Conventions, the HCCH 2015 Principles on the Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts, as well as developments with respect to the private international law implications of the digital economy and fintech. Dr Goh Escolar is concurrently Full Professor (Adjunct) at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore.
Prior to her appointment as Deputy Secretary General, Dr Goh Escolar was First Secretary at the Permanent Bureau. At various points in her role as First Secretary, she had primary responsibility over portfolios that spanned the full range of the HCCH’s mandate, from family law and child protection, to transnational litigation and international commercial and financial law.
Dr Goh Escolar was previously in practice, acting as counsel, advocate and consultant in international litigation and arbitration proceedings, first with a specialist international law boutique, and then with a top-tier global law firm headquartered in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Prior to that, she was Legal Advisor to the President of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, and principal legal officer in the chambers of a Judge at the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. She has also served as legal officer in the service of the government of Germany, in-house counsel at a technology company (now part of a unicorn), and vice-president of external relations at an information technology startup.