Institute on World Legal Problems Innsbruck, Austria

July 3 to August 4, 2006

Innsbruck, Austria: The Crossroads of Europe

For centuries, Innsbruck has welcomed travelers and scholars from all parts of the world. Nestled in the breathtakingly beautiful Austrian Alps, and long a favorite vacation spot, Innsbruck has been a vital crossroads for commerce, education, and the arts since the Middle Ages. Its prominence is due in part to the great natural beauty of the Tirol, the region of which it is the capital. But the city also enjoys the advantage of proximity to numerous diverse cultures. To the east there is Hungary; to the west Switzerland and France; to the north Germany, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and Poland; and to the south Italy. All are only a short distance by train. Indicative of Innsbruck’s international appeal, the city annually hosts numerous conferences and twice has been the site of the Olympic Winter Games.

Distinguished Visiting Jurist:  Frank Höpfel

Professor Frank Höpfel is the Institute's Distinguished Visiting Jurist for 2006. Professor Höpfel, who holds the chair for criminal law and criminal procedure at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology of the University of Vienna, has been elected by the U.N. Security Council to serve a four-year term as ad litem Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Prior to joining the University of Vienna faculty, Professor Höpfel held the criminal law professorship at the University of Innsbruck. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the home campus of St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Professor Höpfel has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Max-Planck-lnstitute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg and has participated in numerous international conferences dealing with human rights and criminal law and procedure. Professor Höpfel also has served as Consultant to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and he is the author of numerous treatises, commentaries, and law journal articles.

Past Distinguished Jurists in the St. Mary’s Innsbruck program have included five members of the United States Supreme Court (Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sandra Day O’Connor), and then-President of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Hon. Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, and Richard Goldstone, retired Justice of the South Africa Constitutional Court and Chief Proscutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

St. Mary's Twenty-First Program

Summer 2006 marks the twenty-first year of the St. Mary’s program at Innsbruck. In past years, students from more than 110 different American law schools and several European law schools have participated.

Visits are made to the local courts and to the state seat of government, and guest lectures typically are presented by European professors. Scholars traveling in Europe and lawyers abroad on international business often are invited to share insights with the classes. Students have the opportunity to converse with foreign scholars and Austrian lawyers on several occasions, including at the gala opening reception at Schloss Ambras (the great Habsburg castle).

Classes are taught in English and are conducted four days each week, Monday morning through midday Thursday. This schedule allows students and faculty time to travel on weekends to such destinations as Rome, Paris, the French Riviera, Venice, Vienna, Zurich, Munich, Prague, and Budapest.