The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a landmark ruling this year on the boundaries and limits of copyright and intellectual property protection. The copyright decision is at the centre of a broad debate about intellectual property and the ownership of creative products.

Professor Epstein and Professor Strowel will discuss the extensive policy implications that a new court ruling will have for Europe as well as the U.S. They will also comment on the music licensing provision of the copyright law, the subject of a WTO dispute between the E.U. and the U.S.

Professor Paul Weiler of Harvard Law School has stated: “Richard Epstein is one of the most important and wide-ranging legal scholars in America. I have always found it critical to read him.” Nathan Glazer in The New York Times Review of Books wrote: "Epstein has to be taken seriously, and not only because of the power of his reasoning and his authoritative command of the common law and political philosophy.…[His] reasoning is strong, the knowledge of specific areas of policies is deep, and behind them stands his basic commitment to a more productive and efficient society."

Professor Epstein is the current editor of the Journal of Law and Economics and was previously editor of the Journal of Legal Studies. He has served as Interim Dean of the University of Chicago Law School and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. He is the editor of Cases and Materials in the Law of Torts (7th ed.) and his books include: Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995), Bargaining with the State (1993); and Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (1998). Professor Epstein received a LL.B., cum laude, from the Yale Law School in 1968; a B.A. in law with first class honors from Oxford University in 1966; and B.A. in philosophy summa cum laude from Columbia University in 1964.

Professor Alain Strowel is a professor of copyright law at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Catholic University of Brussels, and the University of Nijmegen; and is a professor of copyright and new technologies at the University of Liège. He is also a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling and has served as an IP expert at the European Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the Belgian Parliament.

Professor Strowel is the co-author of Of Authors and Origins, Essays on Copyright Law; “Droit d’auteur et copyright, Divergences et convergences”, Bruxelles, Bruylant et Paris; “International Copyright Law and Practice”, chapter on Belgium in P.E. Geller (en. Ed.), Mathew Bender; “Commerce sur Internet et droit des signes distinctifs”, Internet et le droit (proceedings of the VUB Conference in Brussels); “Les noms de domaine: massacreurs du droit des marques?”, Propriété Intellectuelle et commerce électronique, (proceedings of the IRPI 2000 Conference in Paris); “La Responsabilité des intermédiaires sur Internet: actualité et question des hyperliens”, RIDA; “La protection des systèmes techniques”, (WIPO Workshop on the implementation of WCT and WPPT in Geneva); and “Le droit d’auteur, du logiciel au multimédia”, Diegem, Kluwer et Bruxelles, Bruylant.

Professor Strowel is a member of the IP Commission, European Lawyer’s Association and the Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property. He received his Ph.D. in law from the Catholic University of Leuven; a post-graduate diploma on European integration from the European Institute of the University of Amsterdam; and degrees in law and philosophy and a diploma in economics from the Catholic University of Leuven.