Herbstausgabe 2010 - Fachverein Jus | Universität Zürich ...

Interview with
Prof. Kern Alexander
«For Zurich, recognisably being an
international faculty, it is good to have one
or two professors with a common law
background.»
Professor Alexander, why did you study law?
Before I studied law, I actually studied history,
government and economics. Many people who study law
want to be a lawyer and get a job practising law. But I think
my goal was a little bit different at the time. Although I
thought I might want to be a lawyer, I was not sure. But I knew
that studying law was an extension of my liberal arts education.
Even though law is narrower than the broader liberal
arts, it still incorporates a lot of the principles and ideas that
one gets when they study social sciences more broadly. So
for me, it was a way to extend my broader education within a
more narrow way, focused on institutions and governments
and on legal rules.
And then you just stayed in the area?
And I stayed in the area, exactly. Like in most things,
inertia sets in. You take a certain path in your career and at
first you might think you are doing it because it looks interesting
and it would be a good life experience. When you get
older you realise that you committed so much of your life to
this that it would cost a lot of change to do something else.
I began the career track by doing a PhD in law and then you
know, one thing leads to another, you become a lecturer and
go through your academic career development.
Can you tell us something about your research
interests?
Broadly, my area of research is financial regulation,
but more specifically I look at the European aspects of financial
regulation and the governance of the EU with respective
financial markets. So I am looking at banking regulation, securities
regulation but also macro economic policy and how
it affects the operation of the European Union and in particular
the euro-zone.
Does Switzerland or Swiss law play a role in this
research?
I think Swiss law is relevant because, geographically,
Switzerland is at the heart of Europe. It has had to
negotiate bilateral agreements with the European Union to
implement a lot of the EU directives in a way that makes
Swiss law similar to EU law. So I think Switzerland is a very
interesting legal system because it does not have to fully do
the whole framework of EU law, but it implements a lot of
the parts of EU law in a very innovative way, which is very interesting
to study from a point of looking at legal innovation.
An example for this is the market abuse directive. It is very
prescriptive; everyone in Europe has got to adopt it in the
way it is written. Switzerland has negotiated its implementation
in a way which is more flexible, so the Swiss can define
market abuse in a way that fits their jurisdiction probably
better than say another EU state that has to implement the
broader EU legislation.
Can you tell us something about your other
professional activities?
I am an advisor to the «European Parliament committee
on economic and monetary affairs». I advise the committee
and I have done several reports for it on the reform of
EU financial regulation, on banking regulation, on the implementation
of Basel III and also on the regulation of capital
markets in light of the financial crisis. I also advised the Parliament
recently on the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone
and what to do about the Greek crisis. So I am now working
on sovereign debt issues from a practical policy prospective.
How good is your work-life balance?
I probably do not have as good a work life balance
as I should have. I am married and I think my wife strikes a
much better balance than I do (laughs).
As students decide on a profession, in my opinion, it
is very important to think about the commitments they have
to make in different types of jobs and that family life is very
important. As people grow older, it is easy to neglect family
life or to think it is something that they can do on the side.
But some time, they find out that they missed out on something
that was probably as meaningful or more meaningful
in the long run. So I make a conscious effort to have family
time and to separate that from my work time. And I think all
students should think about that, too. It is easy to disregard
it now, but as you get older, you realise that your life passes
you by pretty quickly!
How are your different appointments split up?
I am a full time professor here in Zurich. I live here
and also in Cambridge where my wife works at University. I
used to work at Cambridge University, too, but not anymore.
Also, I was formerly employed at Queens Mary, University of
London and I still have colleagues there with whom I do research.
As my wife still works there, we have a house there
and I go there quite a bit and work or do research with my
colleagues.
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