Vivian Curran is a member of the American Law Institute and of the International Academy of Comparative Law, and was awarded the Grand Decoration of Merit in Gold for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria for her work as the United States appointee to the Austrian General Settlement Fund Committee for Nazi-era property compensation. She is the creator of Pitt Law School's innovative Languages for Lawyers program, in which students study foreign languages in a legal context, and of English for Lawyers, in which foreign lawyers study English in a legal context. She is the author and editor of two books, Learning French Through the Law; and Comparative Law: An Introduction; and translated from the German Bernhard Grossfeld, Core Questions of Comparative Law. She is a past Secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law and book review editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law.

Professor Curran has given talks at universities in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Holland. Her work has appeared in such publications as the Notre Dame Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, Boston College Law Review, Alberta Law Review, the American Journal of Comparative Law, Columbia Journal of European Law, Cornell International Law Journal, and in numerous books.

Education

• Comparative Foundations of Law and Justice
• Comparative Legal Cultures of the Western World
• Estates and Trusts
• French for Lawyers
• Law and Globalization Seminar

Specialization

• Comparative Law
• Law and Globalization
• Estates and Trusts
• Law and Language

Selected Publications

Books:

• Comparative Law: An Introduction, (Carolina Academic Press, 2002).
• Learning French Through the Law: A French/English Comparative Treatment of Terms in a Legal Context, (Columbia University, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law & Juris Publishing, Inc., 1996).
• Core Questions Of Compartive Law, (English translation of Bernhard Großfeld’s Kernfragen der Rechtsvergleichung, Carolina Academic Press, 2005).

Articles, Chapters, Other:

• Symposium Remarks on the Alien Tort Statute and the Corporate Defendant, 43 Georgetown Journal of International Law (2012).
• Balancing Freedom of Expression and Human Rights in France, Jurist (Feb. 2012).
• History, Memory and Law,  16 Roger Williams L. Rev. 100 (2011).
• Les Mécanismes de Compétence Universelle au Service de la Protection de l’Environnement, Regards Croisés Sur l’Internationalisation du Droit: France- Etats-Unis 223-230 (Mireille Delmas-Marty & Stephen Breyer, eds., Société de Législation Comparée, 2009).
• l’Internationalisation, Entre Droit Comparé et Droit Intermational: Regard d’une Comparatiste, Regards Croisés Sur l’Internationalisation du Droit: France-États-Unis 119-131 (Mireille Delmas-Marty & Stephen Breyer, eds., Société de Législation Comparée, 2009).
• Comparative Law and the Legal Origins Thesis: '[N] On Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus', 57 American Journal of Comparative Law (2009). On SSRN.
• Voices Saved from Vanishing, 70 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 435 (2009), available on SSRN.
• Legal Developments in France and the United States in the Era of Globalization, European Union Center of Excellence Newsletter (Feb. 2009).
• La Sécurité Juridique à l'Ere de la Mondialisation 110 La Revue du Notariat 311 (2008).
• Globalization, Legal Transnationalization and Crimes Against Humanity: The Lipietz Case, 36 American J. Comparative Law 363 (2008). Available on SSRN.
• The Pursuit of Law, Harmonizaing Law in an Era of Globalization: Convergence, Divergence and Resistance, (Larry Backer, ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2007).
• Book Review of Le Droit Sous Vichy (Durand et al., eds., 2006), 7 H-France Review 141 (Nov. 2007).
• Standing on the Shoulders of Schlesinger: The Trento Common Core of European Private Law Project, Opening Up European Law (Mauro Bussani & Ugo Mattei, eds., 2007). Previously published in 11 Eur. J. Private L. 66 (2003), 2 Global Jurist Frontiers 2, (2002).
• Translation and Annotation of Lipietz c. Préfet de la Haust-Garonne, Tribunal Administratif de Toulouse, (June 6, 2006).
• Book Review of Mireille Delmas-Marty, Globalisation Économique et Universalisme des Droits de l'Homme, 4 Revue de Sciences Criminelles et Droit Pénal Comparé (2006).
• Re-Membering Law in the Internationalizing World, 34 Hofstra L. Rev. 93 (2005). Available on SSRN.
• Beyond the Digest, translation from the French of Claude Witz [original title in English] (volume of proceedings of University of Pittsburgh conference on the Vienna Convention, February 2003, Ronald Brand et al. eds.).
• Politicizing the Crime Against Humanity: The French Example, 78 Notre Dame Law Review 677 (2003) (available on SSRN), to be published in condensed version under the title Politicizing the Crime Against Humanity in France’s Courts in Law and Critique (forthcoming).
• On the Shoulders of Schlesinger: The Trento Common Core of European Private Law Project, Opening Up European Law (Mauro Bussani & Ugo Mattei, eds., 2007). Available on SSRN.
• Comparative Law and Language, Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law (Mathias Reimann & Reinhard Zimmermann eds., Oxford University Press, 2006). Available on SSRN and bepress.
• A Comparative Perspective on the CISG, Drafting Contracts Under the CISG (Ronald Brand & Harry Flechtner eds., Oxford University Press, 2007).
• l’Enseignement du Droit Aux États-Unis: Réflexion sur l’Actualité, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Working Paper Series, Working Paper 34, 
  available on bepress.
• The Role of Foreign Languages for Transnational Legal Education, 23 Penn State Int'l L. Rev. 779 (2005). Available on SSRN.
• Law's Past and Europe's Future, 6 German L.J. 483 (2005).
• Racism's Past and Law's Future, 28 Vermont L. Rev. 683 (2004). Available on SSRN.
• The Politics of Memory/Erinnerungspolitik and the Use and Propriety of Law in the Process of Memory Construction, 14 L. & Critique 309 (2003). Available on bepress.
• On the Shoulders of Schlesinger: The Trento Common Core of European Common Law Project, 11 European Journal of Private Law 66 (2003). Available on SSRN.
• Politicizing the Crime Against Humanity: The French Example, 78 Notre Dame L. Rev. 677 (2003). Available on SSRN.

Selected Presentations:

• Presenter, “L’Affaire Dreyfus et le proces de Rennes,” Persecution through Prosecution: Alfred Dreyfus, Leo Frank and the Infernal Machine, (July 2011).
• Presenter, “Comparative Law in Cultural and Interdisciplinary Context,” Annual Meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law, (Oct. 2011).
• Presenter, “Work in Progress on ‘Kiobel’ Appeal,” American Soc. Int. Law Section on International Law in Domestic Courts, (Dec. 2011).
• Presenter, “Common-Law Methodology, U.S. Tort Law, Contract Law and Criminal Law,” Univ. of Havana Faculty of Law, (Jan. 2012).
• Presenter, “Corporations and Human Rights Violations,” Pitt Law Lawyers Guild, CILE, CLE, February 2012.
• Presenter, “The Alien Tort Statute: A Comparative Law Analysis of the ‘Kiobel’ Appeal,” Faculty Work in Progress Presentation, (Mar. 2012).
• Presenter, “Corporate Liability Under the Alien Tort Statute,” Symposium on the Alien Tort Statute, (Mar. 2012.
• Presenter, “L’Affaire ‘Kiobel’ a l’aune de la territorialite. Presented at: Reseau internationalisation du droit, College de France, (April 2012).
• Presenter, “Historical Antecedents of the Special Court for Sierra Leone,” Conference on the Special Court for Sierra Leone, (April 2012).
• Moderator and Panel Organizer, “Panel on the Uses of Foreign and Comparative Law in Today’s Courts,” Judges Panel, (Nov. 2011).
• Moderator and Panel Organizer, The Idea of France/L’Idee de la France, (Nov. 2011).
• Presenter, “A Comparative Law Perspective on Corporate Liability and Economic Impact of Alien Tort Statute Issues before the Supreme Court,” Stanford Univ. Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, (Mar. 2012).

SSRN Author Page

Awards and Honors

• Awarded the Grand Decoration of Merit in Gold for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria for her work as the United States appointee to the Austrian General Settlement Fund Committee for Nazi-era property compensation (2007).

Selected Professional Activities

• Chair, American Society of Comparative Law.
• Advisory Board Member, Univ. of Maine Law School French Law Program.