Boris Kozolchyk
Founder & Chairman Emeritus, National Law Centre, USA
* Boris Kozolchyk, Professor Emeritus, College of Law, University of Arizona, Arizona, USA. Email: bkozolchyk@natlaw.com.
A. Professional Profile.
Boris Kozolchyk is the Evo De Concini Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Arizona College of Law, where he taught from 1969 to 2017; he founded the presently named Kozolchyk National Law Center (NatLaw) (formerly named National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade). NatLaw is a leading international commercial law reform and economic development research institution that emphasizes the importance of good faith (honest, reasonable and equitable) commercial practices as the normative basis of economic development laws. Kozolchyk represented the United States Council on International Banking (USCIB) at the International Chamber of Commerce as one of the drafters of the Uniform Customs and Practices for Documentary Credits (UCP 500 of 1993). He also was part of the US delegation that participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on Independent Bank Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit (IGSLC 1996).
The UCP 500 and the IGSLC restored the waning trust in documentary letters of credit (LOC’s) and independent bank guarantees as international payments instruments. During the 1980’s, dishonest, one sided and unreasonable practices threatened the survival of LOC’s and Independent Bank Guarantees. Had they perished, as had some of their predecessors, uncontrollable inflation threatened developed and developing nations alike.
As a US Delegate for the drafting of the Organization of American States Model Inter-American Law of Secured Transactions of 1993 (OASML) and its Model Registry Regulations of 2009 (MR 2009), he insisted on making it possible for small businesses to access credit and reasonable rates of interest. His role in the above, among his other normative accomplishments, earned him the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 by his colleagues in three continents.
Kozolchyk’s first two published books “Commercial Letters of Credit in the Americas” (Matthew Bender, 1966) and its Spanish translation, El Credito Documentario en el Derecho Americano (1973) received the “Best Book” Award by the Inter-American Bar Association in 1971 and by Spain’s Institute of Hispanic Culture in 1973. They reflected the type of comparative law that characterized his lifelong teaching, and drafting of national and international commercial laws in which he is still involved at NatLaw.
B. Teaching and Publications.
Kozolchyk has taught comparative commercial law courses in Latin American, European and Asian countries. Costa Rican law schools still use a commercial law textbook “Curso de Derecho Mercantil. (1969) that he co-authored with the late and lamented Professor Octavio Torrealba. Subsequently, as a visiting professor at Mexico’s National University (UNAM) Law School, he delivered a series of lectures based on his experience as an advisor on the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): El Derecho Comercial ante el Libre Comercio y el Desarrollo Economico (Commercial Law, Free Trade and Economic Development) Mc Graw Hill 2006); it continues to be used as a reference book in Mexican international trade and commercial law courses. As a visiting professor at the Spanish Carlos III University Law School, a similar set of lectures were subsequently published jointly by that university and Natlaw and La Contratacion Comercial en el Derecho Comparado (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Natlaw 2006)
His West Academic Press Hornbook “Comparative Commercial Contracts, Law, Culture and Economic Development, 1st and 2nd editions, West Academic Press 2019) is a product of a fifty-year teaching experience at United States, Latin American, European and Asian Law schools and has become a widely referenced book in many countries. In 2020, a Spanish translation was published bv Tirant lo Blanch of Valencia, Spain as La Contratacion Commercial Comparada: Derecho Cultura y Desarrollo Economico.
3. Academic and Professional Honors.
Kozolchyk holds, the “Agradecimiento mas Profundo” (Most Profound Appreciation Award) from the University of Costa Rica and Honoris Causa degrees from Santiago de Chile Universidad Mayor, Peru’s Universidad Antonio Guillermo Urrelo and China’s Shanghai University for International Business and Economics (SUIBE)
He was awarded distinguished visiting professorships by Argentina’s Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Spain’s Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Carlos III, France’s Faculté de Droit et de Science Politique, Aix en Provence, Louisiana State University School of Law, the University of Miami School of Law and Pace University School of Law.
The American Bar Association honored him with the Leonard J. Theberg award for his numerous contributions to the field of private international law, the United States-Mexican Bar Association honored him with the Jose Luis Siqueiros Award for contributions to the harmonization of the laws of Mexico and the United States and Instituto de Investigaciones Juridicas de la Universidad Autonoma de Mexico honored him with the Ignacio Vallarta Medal for outstanding contributions to comparative commercial law. He was also one of the founders and third president of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law.
