E. R. Lanier
General Counsel, Orthodox Church in America, Professor of Law Emeritus- Education
LL.M., University of Georgia
J.D., Emory University
M.A., Georgia College & State University
M.S., Georgia State University
B.A., University of North Carolina
- Specializations
Civil Procedure
Comparative Law
Dispute Resolution
International Law
Legal History
- Biography
E. R. Lanier, professor of law, hails from North Carolina, but moved to Georgia as a child. He completed his preparatory education with the Franciscan Friars at St. John's Seminary in Montour Falls, New York, in 1962 and in 1965 received his B.A. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1968 he took the J.D. at Emory University and a certificate in International Law from City of London College in England, following which he attended the Naval Justice School in Newport, R.I.
Lanier was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1968. Later, in 1984, he received his M.Sc. from Georgia State University. He was awarded the LL.M. at the University of Georgia in 2004, where his thesis addressed the history of arbitration law in Georgia from colonial times until the present. His M.A. in history from Georgia College & State University was awarded for his thesis addressing the evolution in Georgia of the constitutional principles limiting secular court intervention in church property disputes.
He is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and, during the late 1960's and early 70s, he saw active duty in Europe, the United States, and Asia, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Combat for service in the Republic of Vietnam. Returning home, he practiced law in Atlanta with the firm of Gambrell, Russell, Killorin, Wade & Forbes until he established a firm in Buckhead in the early 1970s. His affiliation with Georgia State University began in the mid-1970s when he taught as an adjunct instructor in the College of Business Administration, joining the full-time faculty in that college in 1977. With action by the Board of Regents to establish the law school at Georgia State in 1981, he became active in assisting Dean Ben Johnson in the organization of the school, joining its faculty as an associate professor of law in fall 1982. He has been with the College of Law since that time, serving as interim dean during the period 1985-1986 and as associate dean for development in 1986-1987.
Active in the fields of procedure and international and comparative law, Lanier has served as visiting professor at a variety of schools abroad, including the University of Bielefeld in Germany (1978-1979); Westminster College (Oxford, England, 1983); the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris (Paris, France, 1983); the University of Warsaw (2000; 2004); and the University of Linz in Austria, where he appeared intermittently throughout the 1990s.
Lanier was the director of the Summer Academy in International Commercial Arbitration, a cooperative educational venture emphasizing international commercial arbitration co-sponsored by the College of Law and Law Faculty of the University of Warsaw, Poland. In 1994, in recognition of his extensive background and activity in international and comparative law, Lanier was named an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law headquartered in Paris. He was elected chair of the Section on International Legal Exchange of the American Association of Law Schools for the year 2003-2004.
Lanier teaches a variety of procedural and international courses at the College, including Civil Procedure, Remedies, Georgia Practice & Procedure, International Moot Court, and the Seminar on Georgia Legal History.
Lanier's leisure activities reflect his professional interests. He is vice president of the Georgia Legal History Foundation and board member of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. He serves as a member of the National Legal Advisory Board of the Orthodox Church in America.
- Publications
Books
E.R. Lanier, Secular Courts and Georgia Churches: Historical Aspects of the Evolution of a State Policy of Deference to Ecclesiastical Government (2007) (unpublished M.A. thesis, Georgia College & State University).
Book Chapters
E.R. Lanier, Personal Jurisdiction, in Georgia Procedure: Civil Procedure (Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Co., 1995).
E.R. Lanier, Venue, in Georgia Procedure: Civil Procedure (Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Co., 1995).
E.R. Lanier, The Public Policy Defense to the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards Under the New York Convention, in Festschrift der Professoren der rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Johannes- Kepler- Universität Linz für Rudolf Strasser zum 70. Geburtstag (Manz Verlag, 1993).
E. R. Lanier, The Legal Environment of International Business, in The Legal Environment of Business (Dryden Press, 1986).
E. R. Lanier & Karl P. Sauvant, Empresas Transnacionales E Interaccion de los Estados Los Consejos de Paises Receptores, in Derecho Comparado, Revosta de la Asociacion Argentina de Derecho Comparado (Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1982).
E. R. Lanier, Georgia and International Trade, in Foreign Investment in Georgia: A Business Reference Guide (E.R. Lanier ed., Georgia State University Business Publishing Division, 1982).
Karl P. Sauvant & Elton R. Lanier, Host-Country Councils: Concept and Legal Aspects, in Legal Problems of Codes of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises (Norbert Horn ed., B.V. Kluwer Deventer, 1980).
Articles
E.R. Lanier, Book Review, Atlanta Hist., Apr. 2004, at 101 (reviewing Paul DeForest Hicks, Joseph Henry Lumpkin: Georgia's First Chief Justice (2002)).
E.R. Lanier, Surveying the Basics: Enforceability of Foreign Arbitral Agreements and Awards Under United States Law, 3 Przeglad Prawniczy Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 76 (2004).
E. R. Lanier, Georgia’s New Reciprocity Admissions Rule: A Short History and Brief Introduction, Ga. Bar J., Feb. 2003, at 26.
E.R. Lanier, Invisible Barriers in United States Law to the Recognition and Enforcement of International Commercial Arbitral Agreements and Awards: The American Law of Personal Jurisdiction in Application to Judicial Proceedings to Stay Litigation, to Compel Arbitration, and to Confirm Arbitral Awards, 3 Croatian Arb. Y.B. 139 (1996).
E. R. Lanier, Connecting Defendant’s Contact and Plaintiff’s Claim: The Doctrine of Specific Jurisdiction and the Matrimonial Domicile Provisions of the Georgia Long-Arm Statute, 11 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 303 (1994-1995).
E.R. Lanier, The Georgia Domestic Relations Long-Arm Statute: Any Questions?, Family L. Rev., Apr. 1993.
E.R. Lanier & Hans Dolinar, The Judicial Analogue: On the Impartiality of Arbitral Tribunals in International Commercial Arbitration, 42 Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta u Zagrebu 617 (1992).
E. R. Lanier, The Changing Relationship of Subject Matter Jurisdiction and Venue in Georgia Civil Practice, Law Letter, Fall 1990, at 12.
E. R. Lanier, Long Arm, Short Reach: The Dilemma of Georgia’s Long Arm Statute, Verdict, Jan. 1990, at 21.
E.R. Lanier, Forward into the Past: Georgia's 'New' Statutory Tort of Abusive Litigation, 6 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 337 (1989).
E. R. Lanier, Post-Yosties: The New Statutory Tort of Abusive Litigation, 3 Law Letter 6 (1989).
E. R. Lanier, Solange, Farewell: The Federal German Constitutional Court and the Recognition of the Court of Justice of the European Communities as Lawful Judge, 11 B. C. Int'l Comp. L. Rev. 1 (1988).
E. R. Lanier, State Incentives for International Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, 10 European Int'l Bus. Ass'n Rep. (1985).
E.R. Lanier & N.R. Reeves, Reflections on German Corporation Forms: A Comparative Survey, 1981 S.E. Regional Bus. L. Ass'n Proc.
Elton Ray Lanier, Statutory Construction - Effect of an Invalid Amendment on a Prior Statute, 16 J. Pub. L. 228 (1967).
Other
An Overview of Trade and Investment Regulations for the Far East: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, (E. R. Lanier et al. eds., Georgia World Congress Institute, 1985).
The Unitary Taxation of Transnational Corporations: State Perspectives, (E. R. Lanier ed., Georgia World Congress Institute, 1984).
Foreign Investment in Georgia: A Business Reference Guide, (E. R. Lanier ed., Georgia State University Business Publishing Division, 1982).