Carl Baudenbacher classifies Brexit and the significance of a possible EEA accession following EFTA membership. And what would that mean for Switzerland?
Tuesday, 20. September 2016, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOL-G-201 (Aula)
After Brexit, the question for the UK is how it can secure access to the EU's internal market for its economic actors. This would be guaranteed with EEA membership. The prerequisite for EEA membership is EFTA membership. The decisive factor would probably be whether the British could negotiate changes in participation and in the free movement of persons. This could possibly also open the way for Switzerland to join the EEA.
After several guest professorships in Germany, Baudenbacher became full professor of private, commercial and business law at the University of St. Gallen in 1987 as successor to Federal Councillor Arnold Koller. In 1995 he founded the global HSG postgraduate programme European and International Executive Master of Business Law, which takes place on three continents and which he still directs today. Also in 1995, at the suggestion of Liechtenstein, he was appointed judge at the EFTA Court, which he has presided over since 2003. From 1993 to 2005, Baudenbacher was Permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Texas School of Law. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics from Leuphana University of Lüneburg. In 2014, Baudenbacher was a member of the independent investigative commission set up by the Austrian federal government to transparently clarify the events surrounding Hypo Group Alpe Adria ("Griss Commission"). In January 2016, the "Basler Zeitung" put him on the list of the 15 most influential thinkers in Switzerland.