Center for European and Russain Studies

The MSU Center for European and Russian Studies (CERS) has announced plans for a June 2001 international conference. "Progress and Challenges of Democratization and Economic Liberalization: Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union," will be held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The conference, scheduled for June 8-10, will coincide with the visit of MSU students participating in MSU's Economic and Political Transition in Eastern Europe study abroad program, which also involves periods of study and residence in Budapest, Hungary, and Olomouc, Czech Republic.

CERS's initial MSU partner for this conference is James Madison College (JMC), but it is anticipated that other colleges and centers will become cosponsors. Babes-Bolyai University is the Romanian host and cosponsor. The conference is designed to provide a multidisciplinary examination of the impact of global restructuring (globalization and liberalization) on the political economies of transition states in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In effect, it will also serve as a 10- to 12-year assessment of transition progress in the region.

This upcoming conference is third in a series of "Progress and Challenges" conferences that CERS and JMC have helped organize. The previous two, which involved additional MSU cosponsors, were held on the MSU campus: "China, India, and Russia: Progress and Challenges of Economic Transition" in October 1998, and "Progress and Challenges of Democratization and Economic Liberalization: South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Poland, and Hungary" in April 2000.

Scholars wishing to participate in the 2001 conference should consult the call for proposals, available on the center's Web site at http://www.isp.msu.edu/CERS/ (http://www.isp.msu.edu/CERS/). Papers based on comparative analysis are particularly encouraged, but single-country investigations are also welcome. Publication of the conference proceedings is envisioned.

MSU-Detroit College of Law Journal of International Law

The MSU-DCL Journal of International Law has announced details of its 2001 Symposium, "Uruguay and Beyond: The WTO, Agriculture, and the Law," to take place February 8-9, 2001, on the MSU campus. Faculty in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources are playing a key support role in making the event a reality.

Three panels are being organized, with panelists from MSU, as well as a wide variety of governmental, business, and nongovernmental organizations. Panel topics are "WTO and Market Access: Subsidies, Tariffication, and Barriers to Freer Trade," "Agricultural Trade, Developing Nations, and the Future of Negotiations," and "Biotechnology and Agriculture."

For more information regarding this event, visit the Web site at http://www.dcl.edu/jil/symposium.htm (http://www.dcl.edu/jil/symposium.htm) or contact Michigan State University/Detroit College of Law, Journal of International Law, 209 Law College Building, East Lansing, MI 48824-1300; tel 517.432.6932; fax 517.432.6966; e-mail dcljilp@msu.edu.