Prof. Dr. Peter Hay honorary doctor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Pécs since 8 November 2012.
Peter Hay was born in Berlin, 17 September 1935. He studied law and graduated at the University of Michigan (with highest honours) in 1958. He was a Michigan Foreign Law Fellow at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg in Germany between 1959‑1960. After that he was employed as an instructor of law at the University of Michigan. In 1961, he became an assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh. He changed to the University of Illinois in 1963, became an Associate Professor of Law in 1964 and then a professor of law in 1966. He was elected Dean of the Faculty in 1980 and served in that office until 1989. From 1989 until 1991 he was the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Illinois. He took emeritus status at that University in 1991. In 1991, Peter Hay became a professor of law at Emory University; in 1992, he was awarded the title of L.Q.C. Lamar Professor of Law. He took emeritus status at Emory in 2012.
Since 1975, he has been Honorary Professor at the University of Freiburg. He was the Chair for Civil Law, Private International & Foreign Law and Comparative Law at the University of Dresden between 1994-2000 and the Dean of the Faculty between 1997-2000. Since 2000 he has been a professor emeritus. Since 1996, he has been a Recurrent Visiting Professor of Law at the Central European University (Budapest) and, since 2005, a visiting professor, also annually, at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. During his career, he was also a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and Stanford University (both United States) and at the Universities of Bonn and Freiburg i. Br. (Germany).
He is an expert of law in the field of Conflict of Laws (U.S. and German), Contracts, Sales (U.S., German, and Vienna Convention), International Litigation (U.S. and German), Comparative Law, International Civil Procedure, Family Law (German).
He has been the Member of the German Council for Private International Law since 1996; the German Society of International Law since 1995. He was also the U.S. Expert for the Convention on the Law Applicable to Agency of the Hague Conference on Private International Law between 1974‑1976; the Convention was concluded on 14 March 1978. He was a Consultant at the Department of State Advisory Committee on Private International Law between 1974‑1978; and 1987-1991. He has been the Member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of Comparative Law since 1961; and the Cahiers de Droit Européen, Brussels, since 1970.
Honours and Acknowledgments
Professor Hay was elected to become an associate academician of the International Academy of Comparative Law in 1979; and then a titular member in 1999. He is the member of the American Law Institute since 1984 and the American Academy of Foreign Law since 1986, both by election. In 1989 he won the Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, the tenure of the prize was September 1989 - May 1990. He was lecturing at the University of Bonn as a Fulbright Research Professor between January and July of 1992. As recipient of the Jean Monnet-Professorship, he lectured in the summer semester of 1994 at the University of Bonn. He is an honorary member of the Institut für ausländisches und internationales Recht, at the Juristische Fakultät of the Technische Universität Dresden. He is an honorary member of the German- American Lawyers' Association.
The professional relationship between Professor Hay and Professor László Kecskés, the Head of the Department of Civil Law (Faculty of Law) started in the late 1990's. Between 1996 and 1999, they had a common course on European law at the Central European University (Budapest). Professor Hay visited the Law Faculty several times and he gave more lectures, which attracted the great interest of the students and colleagues from the teaching staff. The honorary doctor title of Peter Hay boosts the prestige of the University of Pécs.