Richard Gardner

(Columbia Law School, New York – Professor of International Law)

I have the honour of being a member of the “club” of roughly 1,000 students to have taken the longest-running seminar of its kind at Columbia Law School: Professor Gardner’s intimate weekly gathering known as “Legal Aspects of U.S. Foreign Economic Policy”. Through this seminar, which first appeared in the course catalog during the 1955-1956 academic year, Prof. Gardner has helped generations of students explore and comprehend cutting-edge issues at the borderline of foreign policy and international economics.

Prof. Gardner has enjoyed an impressive diplomatic career, including a series of appointments under Presidents Kennedy (UN), Carter (Italy) and Clinton (Spain, 1993 to 1997). Still today, he serves as a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. It was a seminar with benefits extending well beyond those of intellectual stimulation and proximity to policymakers (I remember for instance an amazing dinner at Professor Gardner’s apartment on Fifth Avenue with the Vice-President of the Federal Reserve). In this respect, there were two special features worth noting. On the one hand, my amazing fellow students, who all contributed to make the class discussions a brilliant exercise: “Every year, I get 80 applicants for 20 places,” used to say Professor Gardner. “I’m glad I’m teaching the class, because I don’t think I could have been admitted to it in competition with you.” On the other hand, the anecdotes from 50 years in the foreign policy arena reported by Prof. Gardner with his talented irony. Besides, Prof. Gardner offered the very real possibility of having your term paper ending up on the desk of a US State Secretary —with a personal note from Gardner attached (mine on WTO dispute resolution reform ended up on the desk of the Chairman of the WTO Appellate Body, Prof. Merit Janow).

On top of the above, Prof. Gardner has a deep interest in each and every student –he personally invited me to discuss with him about the EU and Spain- and has demonstrated a remarkable ability to advocate for them beyond the mere recommendation. Increasingly, graduates from the “Dick Gardner Employment Agency” form a global network. Hundreds of Gardner’s former students are today spread around the world, working for foreign governments, the U.N., and international organizations. His seminar reconfirmed my interest in foreign policy and was certainly among my most memorable experiences at Columbia University.