Louis E. Bertone

Louis E. Bertone (born February 25, 1954) is a lawyer and professor of Law. In his own words, he was like Molière's character who didn't realize that he spoke in prose - despite an early exposure to Law and Economics: It wasn't until he came to teach in 2004 at the Faculté Libre de Droit d'Economie et de Gestion in Paris that he became formally aware of the need to approach the two disciplines together.

Law & Economics

His contact with Law & Economics goes back to a first and rapid experience in public office at the Direccion General de Legislacion Economica (1981) and Cabinet Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce (1982), next moving on as Consultant for the INTAL division of the Inter-American Development Bank in Argentina (1983-1984). In parallel he drilled down from macro to micro, first in Argentina as General Counsel of a joint venture formed between KWU and the Argentine Government (1982-1986), and later in Europe as Associate General Counsel Europe Middle East & Africa with Oracle Corporation and as Vice-President Senior Counsel with Baan Company.

Before and after these in-house positions, he still preferred (as outside counsel) negotiation to litigation. While lecturing at Santa Clara University in 2001, David D. Friedman's Law's Order (2000) came as a revelation. Friedman's metaphor of "Clouds and Barbed Wire" was appealing for someone with a thesis on transfer of technology. In addition, if the « law of the parties » was by far the most significant fraction of all law, and « all goods and services including law itself could be produced by the free market », then he had himself been one significant producer for the past 20 years.

Life and work

The son of professors Angel Bertone (Philosophy) and Federica Bertone (Literature), he holds a JD degree (Abogado) of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (1976) and a JSD degree of the Université de Paris(1980).

In parallel with a core career as in-house counsel, he participated in the Group of Experts for the WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries on Inventions and Know-How, and attended several EU meetings prior to the enactment of the Directives on Computer Programs (1991) and Databases (1995). In February 1997 he was a closing dinner speaker at the OECD Global Information Infrastructure Commission meeting, and most recently he attended as a Delegate the OECD Global Forum on Development (May 2008), the Experts of Fiscal Policy Meeting (April 2008) the OECD-IMF Conference on Structural Reform in Europe (March 2008) and the July 2007 meeting on Informality: Exit and Exclusion.

He was Adjunct Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Module Leader at the University of Westminster, lectured severally for Santa Clara University and in one occasion for a Summer Course in Paris of the University of San Diego; he is currently a Professor of Law at the Faculté Libre de Droit d'Economie et de Gestionin Paris as well as a contributing editor for the European Edu-series webzine.

Peripheral interests

A decent chess player in his youth, he stayed away from competition since college. His taste for lines such as the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense would instead inspire research about how contemporary game theory would deliver in a moderately complex settings. Black's deliberately asymmetric choice provided threads to further explore asymmetries in information, in preferences, in competition and in contract-making. Another research focus was on the rapid, "systemic" collapse of apparently solid positions.

As a self-taught Java and php programmer, a breakthrough in data processing paradigms would have been beyond both expectations and possibilities. His initial purpose was to learn enough about Internet techniques to better serve the needs of his students. As it came out, this also turned into a theoretical interest: some experience of languages with no tolerance to ambiguity proved useful, both in professional practice and in his Law and Literature courses. Similarly, his awareness of function interactions and logical loop traps helped to better understand causation in dynamic settings, from academic, professional or business positions.

After majoring with straight As in History, he decided not to pursue historical studies towards the completion of the MA degree. He thus relegated History to a non-academic, yet strong interest. In early career he published and lectured in historical matters, with eclectic tastes. Most recently, his video production activities are focused on the historical World Heritage.

Bibliography

Economic Legislation

Award-winning paper

• « Macroeconomic Cooperation and Monetary Cooperation in Integration Processes», Segundo Concurso de Ensayos INTAL, IADB, 2004.

Books

• Le Transfert de Technologie en Droit Communautaire Comparé (thesis), Paris, 1981.
• Marco Juridico y Fiscal de los Pagos Internationales de los paises de América Latina, Inter-American Development Bank INTAL, 1985.
• Derecho de Marcas (2 vols, with Guillermo Cabanellas, Editorial Heliasta, Buenos Aires, 1989. Second Edition, 2003.

Papers

• « Régime Juridique et Fiscal des Investissements Etrangers en Argentine », La Semaine Juridique, December 1976.
• « Propriété Industrielle et Droit du Développement », Revue Internationale de la Propriété Industrielle et Artistique, June 1977.
• « La loi du 22 Décembre 1980 sur les Marques », Revue Internationale de la Propriété Industrielle et Artistique, October 1981.
• « Host Country Taxation of Transfer of Technology Transactions » (with Guillermo Cabanellas), Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 1981.
• « Los procesos de integracion y la proteccion de la innovacion tecnologica », Integracion Latinoamericana, June 1982.
• « Les Importations, Exportations et Fabrications Nucléaires dans le cadre du droit des Communautés ou zones d’Intégration », Nuclear Energy Law, 1985.
• « The WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries : a new patent profile », Patent World, 1987.
• « Le levier du Droit Communautaire des Marques » (with Marie-Aimee de Dampierre]]), Revue de Droit de la Propriété Industrielle, 1988.
• « The EEC Directive on Computer Software » European Community Law after 1992 (Folsom, R., Lake, R. and Nanda, V. eds.), Kluwer, The Netherlands, 1993. Second Edition, 1996.
• « Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Information Society », Replies from Interested Parties (European Commission), 1995.
• « Comments to the EU Discussion Paper on Restrictive Practices», Replies from Interested Parties (European Commission) June 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/art82/086.pdf
• « Syllogisme, Invention et Biopiraterie » (Summer 2007, Revue Digitale de la Propriété Intellectuelle).
• « Economic Growth, Tax Complexity and Consistency in Latin-America » (Summer 2008).

Dialog

• « Controlling Ideas: A Dialog on European and American Approaches to Intellectual Property and Antitrust» (at Santa Clara University, Summer 2000).

History

Book

• Castiglione, el Estilo Napoleonico (1970)

Papers

• « El Valor de la Arenga Napoleonica », Revista de la Escuela Superior de Guerra 400 (1972)
• « Napoleon y la Guerrilla », Revista de la Escuela Superior de Guerra 418 (1975)
• « Napoleon y el Atlantico », Estudios Historicos (Summer 1976)

Dialog

• « Un Dialogo con el Dr. José Maria Velazco Ibarra » (Estudios Politicos, Summer 1977).

Editorial Activities

• Director, Estudios Historicos, 1976
• Member of the Editorial Board, Estudios Internacionales, 1977
• Member of the Editorial Board, European Edu-series, 2006