Speaker Series

The Gorbachev Foundation of North America's Speaker Series provides a forum for outstanding world leaders, politicians, policy makers, academics, and business executives to discuss important issues of the day connected to the core mission of the Foundation. 

The goal of GFNA is to contribute to the strengthening and spread of democracy and economic liberalization. A non-partisan organization, the Gorbachev Foundation examines the social, economic culture, and technological forces that influence democratization.

Included in this program are meetings dedicated to the discussion of current events in specific nations and regions. Events are held on Northeastern University's main campus and are open to the Boston community. 

Professor Bernard Black Institutional Reform in Transition: A Case Study of Russia  April 23, 2003 11:30am - 1:30pm 450 Dodge Hall Bernard Black, Professor of Law at Stanford University, spoke at Northeastern University on April 23, 2003 as part of the GFNA Speakers' Series. Co-Sponsored by Northeastern University's College of Business Administration and the School of Law.   Bernard Black's talk covered topics included in a recent paper he wrote with a colleague, titled "Institutional Reform in Transition: A Case Study of Russia."  A decade of experience with the transition from centrally planned to market economies has taught us that the strength of a country's market-supporting "institutions" powerfully affect transition success. However, the necessary institutions are rarely specified in detail. This article provides this detail through a case study of Russia. We describe the multiple legal, institutional, and microeconomic reforms that Russia needed to put in place as part of its transition to a market economy. We discuss the important and sometimes non-obvious synergies between different reform elements, and explain why controlling corruption is a core element of successful transition. Our basic message is to stress the complexity of reform, the interrelatedness of reform elements, and the pervasive effect of corruption in undermining reform efforts.   Professor Bernard Black  Stanford Law School USA Between 1994 and 1995 he was Senior Policy Advisor, resident in Moscow, to the Russian Legal Reform Project, advising on corporate and securities law, while also Professor of Law, Colombia Law School 1988-98. Between 1987 and 1988 he was Counsel to Joseph A Grundfest, Securities and Exchange Commission, USA. Bernard Black is co-author of A Guide to the Russian Law on Joint Stock Companies (Kluwer Law International 1998 – second edition due 2004) and of numerous articles and books on Russia and on corporate governance issues, including Does Corporate Governance Matter? Evidence from Korea (working paper January 2003); Institutional Reform in Transition: A Case Study of Russia (Supreme Court Economic Review, 2002), The Corporate Governance Behaviour and Market Value of Russian Firms (Emerging Markets Review, 2001), and Russian Privatization and Corporate Governance: What Went Wrong? (Stanford Law Review, 2000).