Peter L. Fitzgerald
Professor of Law
B.A., College of William & Mary
J.D. University of California, Hastings College of Law
LL.M., University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Courses: Contracts, International Animal Law Seminar, International Business Transactions, International Trade and the Environment, International Trade Regulation
Professor Fitzgerald spent the 2010-2011 academic year in the United Kingdom conducting sabbatical research on international law and animal welfare as a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University's Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and as a MacCormick Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. While in the U.K. he also served as the Resident Director of the College of Law's "Autumn in London" semester abroad program. His new book on International Issues in Animal Law will be published in 2012.
As a specialist in international commercial and economic law, Professor Fitzgerald has co-authored four other books and written numerous articles in the field. He appeared before the congressionally created Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Assets Control, and was invited to provide evidence to both the Swedish Foreign Ministry's Ad Hoc Working Group on Legal Safeguards and Targeted Sanctions, and to the British House of Lords' Economic Affairs Committee's Inquiry into the Impact of Economic Sanctions. Additionally, the U.S. Trade Representative appointed Professor Fitzgerald to the NAFTA Bi-national Chapter 19 Panel Roster, and he served as an arbitral judge on two separate international dispute resolution panels established under the NAFTA agreement.
Professor Fitzgerald previously taught at the University of Edinburgh School of Law as a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Research Fellow, and has also taught courses at the George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C.; the Scandinavian/Baltic Institute on Emerging Markets and Transitional Democracies summer program in Tallinn, Estonia; and the Innsbruck Institute on World Legal Problems summer program in Austria. Additionally, he has lectured at Cambridge University's Centre for Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology, within the Department of Veterinary Medicine, as well as at the Scottish Agricultural College. At Stetson, he is a recipient of the "Golden Apple" Teaching Award, the Homer and Dolly Hand Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship, and the Outstanding Faculty Service Award.
Prior to joining Stetson's faculty, Professor Fitzgerald spent 15 years in-house with the IBM legal department. He served as counsel to the IBM Export Regulation Office in Washington D.C., along with a variety of other assignments at IBM's corporate headquarters in New York, its European headquarters in Paris, France, and at regional sales and manufacturing locations in Maryland and Georgia. He began his career as a law clerk to the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham at the U.S. District Court in Texas; and formerly served as a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve Intelligence Program with assignments in Washington D.C., London, and Brussels. Professor Fitzgerald is licensed to practice both in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
Professor Fitzgerald is active in Golden Retriever Rescue of Mid-Florida, and shares an office with both "Dora" and "Duncan" - which he trained to be registered therapy dogs.