Prof. Paul Beaumont
Professor Beaumont moved to the University of Stirling from his personal chair at the University of Aberdeen in August 2019. Paul is one of the editors of the Journal of Private International Law and series editor for Hart Studies in Private International Law. He is one of the authors of the Scottish Universities Law Institute book on Private International Law (3rd edn, 2011). He is the chair of The Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Experts’ Group on Family Agreements. He is a member of the EU’s negotiating team in The Hague Experts’ Group on Jurisdiction in February 2020. He has negotiated the following instruments for the UK and Scottish Governments (Hague Statute 2005, Hague Maintenance Convention and Protocol 2007 and Hague Choice of Court Convention 2005, Brussels I, Ia, Rome I and II, Maintenance and Succession Regulations). In 2019 he was part of the EU delegation that finalised The Hague Judgments Convention. He has published many books and articles on private international law including Cross-Border Litigation in Europe (Hart,2017). He and his partner, Dr Jayne Holliday, are editing the Guide to Global Private International Law (Hart, 2021).
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Sabine Brieger
Judge and Family Judge (ret.) in different courts in Berlin since 1982, now Family Judge in the Court of Pankow/Weißensee in Berlin. She is specialized in international family law and since 2004 in abduction cases (Hague Convention of 1980). Sabine Brieger is a Network Judge in the Hague Network of Judges and in the European Judicial Network. Since 2006 she has also worked as a Mediator in Family affairs.
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Martina Erb-Klünemann
Martina Erb-Klünemann is a German family court judge. She worked as a judge in civil law and criminal law cases at various courts before her appointment as a family judge in 1996. In this capacity she is responsible for international family conflicts pending at Hamm District Court as the centralized court for the District of Hamm Court of Appeals. Martina Erb-Klünemann is a network judge in the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters (EJN) and in the International Hague Network of Judges (IHNJ) as well as co-chair of the Association of International Family Judges (AIFJ). In her position as chair of the German working group to implement mediation into court proceedings she participated in the development of structures concerning this topic in Germany. She dealt with more than 200 Hague return cases as deciding judge. In many of them mediation took place. She is member of the advisory council of MiKK. Since 2008 she is the chair of the annual conferences of the specialized German judges.
She publishes and runs worldwide training courses on cross-border family law and mediation in cross-border family conflicts.
Her main focus is on strengthening children's rights in cross-border proceedings.
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Isabel Fernández de Castillejo y Peetsch
Isabel Fernández de Castillejo y Peetsch studied law in Germany (Freiburg, Berlin, Saarbrücken) and Switzerland (Lausanne). After taking both law exams, she also passed the state exams for sworn translator in 2003 and opened the law and translation firm “Trans & Law“ in the same year. She specialised on immigration and international civil law and started giving lectures and seminars on comparison of laws, family law, immigration law and youth welfare law, among others at the University Leipzig and the HTWK Leipzig (University of Applied Sciences). After attending specialisation courses in these fields, she has been working as a lawyer, lecturer, trainer, cross-border mediator, guardian ad litem and solution-oriented systemic expert. Over the past 10 years she has accompanied approx. 90 cases in international family conflicts. She lives in Leipzig, Germany, with her husband, three children and a dog.
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Prof. Federico Ferraris
Prof. Federico Ferraris, Lawyer, mediator and qualified mediators’ trainer, Federico Ferraris received his Ph.D. in Civil procedure at Unversità degli Studi di Milano in 2010. He spent several periods abroad, as a visiting scholar, among others at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia (2009) and at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (2017), where he gave a course devoted to the cross border and cross cultural dispute resolution. Federico has published several legal papers on mediation and A.D.R., including a book on the Italian civil and commercial mediation system as provided by law. Since 2016 Federico is an Assistant Professor of Civil procedure at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, where he teaches Civil and commercial mediation and Alternative dispute resolution. In 2018 he has been awarded the National Scientific Qualification as an associate professor (A.S.N.) in the field of Civil procedure.
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Dr. hab. Agnieszka Frąckowiak-Adamska
Agnieszka Frąckowiak-Adamska is an assistant professor in the Chair of International and European Law. Her main research interests are European judicial area (civil & criminal), EU citizenship and fundamental rights,internal market and the role of national judges in the application of EU law. Author of publications in leading Polish and European legal journals. Member of EU Commission’s Expert Group on the revision of the Brussels IIa Regulation. Expert in the Asser Institute’s study for the European Parliament on a European Framework for Private International Law. Postdoctoral scholar at the Robert Schuman University, EUI and University Paris-Dauphine. Leader of Polish scientific teams in JUSTICE PROGRAMME projects:
IC2BE -Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement TRANSFER OF PRISONERS - Improving the transfer of persons pursuant to mutual recognition of judicial decisions in criminal matters and the citizens' fundamental rights protection EUPILLAR - Cross-Border Litigation in Europe: Private International Law Legislative Framework, National Courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union
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Gérardine Goh Escolar
Gérardine Goh Escolar is First Secretary at the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Her portfolios span family law and child protection, and international legal cooperation. She has primary responsibility over, among others, the 1980 HCCH Child Abduction and 1996 HCCH Child Protection Conventions. 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. Dr Goh Escolar founded and acted as CEO of a not-for-profit company, teaching theatre and stagecraft to at-risk children and children engaged in disciplinary issues at school and with the law. She was also part of a team that constructed a school for a rural community in Mashan, Guangzhou (PR China), and has lectured on international child rights and cross-border child protection at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
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Dr. Joanna Guttzeit
Dr. Joanna Guttzeit studied law at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt(Oder) and at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. She received her doctorate from the Karl Ruprecht University in Heidelberg, Germany. After working as a judge in Cologne for several years, she was seconded to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, in 2015-2017, Currently, Dr. Guttzeit works at the Pankow/Weißensee Family Court in Berlin, where she is responsible for proceedings with an international context (proceedings under the Hague Child Abduction Convention, maintenance, etc). She is also a liaison judge in the International Hague Liaison Judges Network and in the European Judicial Network.
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Mónica Herranz
MÓNICA HERRANZ BALLESTEROS tenured professor from 2007 of Private International Law, at the Department of Business Law, (Faculty of Law), National Distance University (UNED). PHD in Law in 2002 at the same University. Among her research interests: international family law, international protection of children, procedural international law and European Union law, She has been: Academic Visitor in Oxford University; Academic Visitor in Institut of European and Comparative Law (Oxford Law Faculty); Visiting Fellow in the Institut of European Law (Florence). Visiting Schoolar in: Columbia University, Ottawa University. Visiting Researcher in Institut Suisse de Droit Comparé (Laussane); Visiting Researcher in The Hague Conference of Private International Law (The Hague). Mónica has been designated: Country Expert in the Report of the European Project “The voice of the children in the international child abduction proceedings in Europe”, 2018, and National Expert in the Report of “Cross-border placement of children in the EU”, European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affaris,2016. She has published numerous books in prestigious academic publishers (ad e.x The best interest of the child in the Hague Conventions of Private International Law, Lex Nova, 2004, p. 348; Forum non conveniens and its adaptation to the European Area, Tirant Lo Blanch, 2011, p. 214). She has published numerous articles in international scientific journals, and book chapters.
From 2017 she is and Knowledge Transfer of the National Distance University, Faculty of Law.
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Dr. Juliane Hirsch
Juliane Hirsch - consultant on private international law, family mediator and trainer. Having studied law in Germany and Ireland she specialises in private international law and international family law. She followed a family mediator training in France, where she obtained the French State Diploma for Family Mediation. She had been working for the Hague Conference on Private International Law in the Netherlands for many years as Senior Legal Officer; her fields of work comprised, inter alia, international child abduction, child protection, international family mediation and cross-border recovery of maintenance. Among the larger publications for which she has undertaken principal work during her time at the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference was the “Guide to Good Practice on Mediation” (2012). She is currently involved as external consultant in the work of the Hague Conference’s Experts’ Group on the Recognition and Enforcement of Agreements in Family Matters.
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Prof. Costanza Honorati
Costanza is a Full Professor of European Union Law at the Milano-Bicocca University, School of Law, where she also holds the chair in Private International Law and, in the past, of Legal Procedure of the EU Court of Justice; formerly a Professor for International Law at the University of Sassari (1999-2004). She was the Head of the PhD Program in Law in the Milano-Bicocca University (2007-2012); She is a lawyer, admitted to the Milan bar. She has a strong expertise in the field of Private International Law, in the last years focusing especially on International Family Law. She was appointed a member of the Expert Group assisting the EU Commission on the Recast of Brussels IIa Regulation (2015); she further participated as a member of the Italian Delegation to the EU Council’s Working Group for the Regulation’s final draft (2017-2019). She is now the Chair of the Working Group on a Guide on Maintenance Obligations. A member of several scientific law journals and academic associations, she has published extensively in several fields of PIL and lectures regularly in national and international venues. She has managed national and EU funded projects. Among the latter in PIL in family matters: Brussels IIa Regulation: from South to East (JUST-JTRA- EJTR- AG-2014); C.L.A.S.S.4EU (JUST-JTRA-EJTR-AG-2016); POAM (REC-RDAP-GBV-AG-2017); AMICABLE (JUST-JCOO-AG-2018). She speaks fluently Italian, English, French and German.
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Christian Höhn, LL.M.
Christian Höhn studied law in Bonn and - after his legal clerkship in Cologne - in Edinburgh, Scotland. After working as a lawyer in the field of intellectual property law in Munich, he joined the Federal Office of Justice in 2009 as a consultant in Section II 3, the German Central Authority for International Childhood Conflicts. After 3 years, he moved for about one year to another department of the Federal Office of Justice and then to the Federal Central Office for International Adoption. Since November 2015, he has headed Division II 3 "International Custody, Child Abduction, Child and Adult Protection Matters".
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Ischtar Khalaf-Newsome
Ischtar Khalaf-Newsome is Head of Advisory Services & Co-CEO at MiKK e.V. She is a family lawyer, cross-border family mediator and mediation trainer. Ischtar has been involved in a number of EU co-financed projects on behalf of MiKK, such as LEPCA II (Lawyers in Europe on Parental Child Abduction) and the VOICE, conceiving a child-inclusive mediation training for cross-border family disputes. Before joining MiKK in 2014 she practiced family law for nine years witha focus on cross-border family disputes, including child abduction cases, at Dawson Cornwell, a leading London law firm specialized in international family law. Prior to this Ischtar was a case manager at the child abduction NGO Reunite International in London. Ischtar completed her legal studies at BPP University Law School, holds a Master’s Degree (MA) in Near & Middle Eastern Studies and Islamic Law from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London and an MA and teaching qualification in German and English, Berlin Freie Universität (FU). Ischtar qualified as a mediator with the Family Mediators Association (FMA) in London where she also trained in Child Inclusive Mediation (CIM). She is a practicing cross-border family mediator and has provided diverse training in this field, both for MiKK as well as for other organizations, e.g. the European Academy of Law (ERA). She has published on family law and mediation in e.g. The Family Law Journal, Spektrum der Mediation and Die (Wirtschafts) Mediation.
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Ewa Kopacz
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Ewa Kopacz was born in 1956. She finished the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University of Lublin, where she graduated in 1981. She attained the second degree of specialisation in paediatrics and family medicine. Until 2001, she worked at the local clinics in the Masovian Province and headed the health care facility in Szydlowiec. Ewa Kopacz became active in local politics in the 1980s joining the United People’s Party. In the 1990s, she joined Freedom Union and chaired the party’s structures in the province of Radom. In the years 1998-2001, she held the position of a Mazovian Regional Assembly councilor. In 2001, Ewa Kopacz joined Civic Platform. Elected for the first time as a deputy to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland in 2001, she was subsequently re-elected in 2005, 2007 and in 2011. In 2005, she became the head of the Health Committee as well as she worked as the chairperson of the Civic Platform structures of the Masovia Province. In 2007, she became a Minister of Health and she remained in that position until 2011 when she became the first woman in Poland to serve as Marshall (Speaker) of the Sejm (2011-14). In the years 2014-2015, she served as leader of the Civic Platform. On 22 September 2014, Ewa Kopacz was sworn in as Prime Minister of Poland and remained in the office until 16th of November 2015. Following the 2019 election to the European Parliament, Ewa Kopacz has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament and became one of its Vice-Presidents. In July 2019, she was entrusted with the role of the European Parliament Coordinator on Children’s Rights.
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Dr. Kerstin Niethammer-Jürgens
Kerstin is a German national, a practicing lawyer and partner in the Law office Jürgens Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Potsdam/Berlin. She studied law and political science in Göttingen, München and Würzburg including a three-month study visit at Yale Law School. After finishing her legal clerkship in Berlin Kerstin was admitted to the bar in 1991 and got her doctorate from the University of Frankfurt am Main in the same year. Since the start of her career as a lawyer, Kerstin has specialised in Family Law. After handling one of the first child abduction cases after Germany´s ratification of the Hague Child Abduction Convention in 1990, her interests and experience focused on International Family Law disputes.
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Shai Ordan
Shai Ordan is a mediator of commercial, technology and family disputes, usually with an international or cross-cultural aspect. Many of Shai's cases involve conflicts short of litigation, such as the prevention, containment and mitigation of conflict at an early stage. Dividing his time between the Berlin and Tel-Aviv, Shai was born and raised in Israel, obtained an LL.B. with distinction from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and clerked for Justice E. Mazza at Israel’s Supreme Court before being admitted to the Israeli Bar Association. He worked internationally for a highly regarded law firm until in 2014 he co-founded Raz, Ordan, Law Offices in Berlin and Tel-Aviv. Shai frequently serves as a judge in international dispute resolution competitions. Shai serves as the Vice Chairperson of the Board of MiKK e.V. International Mediation Centre for Family Conflict and Child Abduction, an NGO engaged since more than a decade in assistance to families, professional training, research and development and the promotion of Cross-Border Family Mediation (CBFM) in the EU and worldwide.
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Dr. Andrea Schulz, LL.M.
After her law studies in Hamburg, Montpellier and at the European University Institute in Florence, Andrea Schulz served as a law clerk with the Hamburg Court of Appeal and worked with the Max Planck Institute on Foreign and International Private Law in Hamburg. Since 1995 she has been a civil servant with the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany. After a secondment to the Council of Europe (European Commission on Human Rights and Directorate of Legal Affairs) and several years as a First Secretary at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, she was the Director of the German Central Authority for International Custody Conflicts at the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn from 2007 to 2014. Following some months of sabbatical leave, she worked as a Seconded National Expert in the Unit Civil Justice of the European Commission from 2015 to 2019 where, together with a colleague, she was in charge of the revision of the Brussels IIa Regulation. Since January 2020 she is the Liaison Judge of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany in France.
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Alison Shalaby
Alison Shalaby OBE,
Chief Executive Officer, reunite International Child Abduction Centre Alison has been instrumental in the development of the charity reunite since 1991, initially as a volunteer member of reunite's Management Committee and now as Chief Executive Officer.
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Prof. UWr. Dr. hab. Magdalena Tabernacka
Prof. Associate. University of Wroclaw. dr hab. Magdalena Tabernacka - works at the Institute of Administrative Sciences of the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics at the University of Wrocław. She conducts scientific research in the field of relations between public authorities and the recipients of their activities. She specializes in the subject of mediation and negotiations in the public sphere.In addition, he conducts research in the field of legal and social conditions of spatial planning and development. She is a social advisor at the Social Council at the Field Plenipotentiary of the Ombudsman in Wrocław.
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