Basil S. Markesinis, a former visiting faculty member in comparative law at Cornell Law School, is the matchmaker behind the gift of the Cornell Center for Documentation on American Law to the Cour de cassation, France's highest court. The center was celebrated July 17 at the Palais de Justice in Paris.

The gift was made this spring following conversations among Markesinis, Stewart Schwab, the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School, and Claire Germain, the Edward Cornell Law Librarian at the Law School.

"Sir Basil Markesinis was instrumental in helping leverage Cornell Law Library's collection to enhance international relations between France and the United States," said Germain.

Markesinis is chair of common and civil law at the University College London and the Jamail regents chair at the University of Texas at Austin. He founded the Institutes of Anglo-American Law at the University of Leiden (1987), the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford (1995), the Institute of Global Law at University College London (2000) and the Institute of Transnational Law at the University of Texas at Austin (2000), which houses translated German and French decisions.

Noelle Lenoir, the first woman justice in the French Constitutional Court, has described Markesinis as "a distinguished academic known for his bridge-building talents."

In 2002 he was appointed Conseiller Scientifique du Premier Président de la Cour de Cassation on matters of European law. In 2004 he was elected to the French Academy and awarded the rank of Commander in the Order of the Legion d' Honneur. In 2005 Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for "services to international legal relations."

Before his current academic appointments, Markesinis held the chair of European law and the chair of comparative law at the University of Oxford. He was chair for 15 years of Anglo-American law at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands; held the Francqui chair at the University of Ghent; and has been a faculty member at the University of Michigan Law School.

As a scholar, Markesinis has been author or co-author of 31 law books and more than 120 articles published in leading U.S. and European law journals. Appointed Queen's Counsel in 1997, he practices law from Essex Court Chambers, specializing in tort litigation with an international focus.

Freelancer Linda Myers is a former writer for the Cornell Chronicle.