Bulletin

Issue: November/December 2005

News

Former WTO Head, Mike Moore, honoured

FORMER HEAD of the World Trade Organisation and Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mike Moore – now Adjunct Professor in the La Trobe University Faculty of Law and Management – has been awarded an honorary doctorate by La Trobe University.

Professor Moore plays a significant role in promoting the MBA programs of La Trobe University, notably in the People’s Republic of China, thereby helping develop Australian tertiary education overseas.

He was awarded his Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) in recognition of his ‘contributions as a global leader and for his services to La Trobe University’. He has been previously honoured by more than a dozen governments as well as universities in the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and Europe.

Professor Moore was Director General of the World Trade Organisation from 1999 until 2002, and became well-known internationally as an articulate proponent of the advantages of a free and fair global trading system.

His term of office coincided with momentous change in the global economy and multilateral trade and brought the majority of the world’s population within the rules-based trading system of the WTO. He introduced significant changes to the way the WTO operated, particularly helping poor countries participate in the multilateral trading system.

La Trobe University Dean of the Faculty of Law and Management, Professor Raymond Harbridge, says Professor Moore, accompanied by the Head of the School of Law, Professor Gordon Walker and Professor Jianfu Chen, visited China in November.

Professor Walker, who is also Chair of Commercial Law, is a specialist in securities regulation and corporate governance in SE Asia and Australia, while Professor Chen is an expert in global governance, human rights and trade law.

The delegation discussed the globalisation of legal education and addressed students and staff at the Chinese University of Politics (CUPL) in Beijing and at Shanghai University School of Law.

La Trobe University and CUPL recently signed a Master of Laws articulation agreement and is now finalising a similar agreement with Shanghai University. This will be followed by a University delegation to the United Arab Emirates, headed by Professor Moore and Professor Harbridge, to explore educational opportunities in the region.

Professor Moore was New Zealand Prime Minister in 1990, and leader of the NZ Labour Opposition from 1990 until 1993. He has also served as Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, Minister of External Relations and Trade, and Deputy Minister of Finance.

Professor Moore was born in Whakatane, New Zealand in 1949. After early experience as a printer, meat worker, construction worker, social worker and trade union researcher, he became in 1972 the youngest Member of Parliament elected in New Zealand.