Jean-Paul Gauzès, the great European

Jean-Paul Gauzès passed away on September 13. His passing leaves us with no words to describe his presence, his warm voice, his inimitable way of telling anecdotes, his immense legal, economic, political and literary culture and, last but not least, his kindness and benevolence.

Jean-Paul Gauzés had a sparkling career, without being in any way a careerist.

I greatly enjoyed participating in the American Bar Association Conference organized in July 2023 in Paris by the ABA Cross-Border Institute.

Many French people are now aware of the weakness of the government in the face of riots that were clearly organized by thugs and those who inspire and radicalize them. The response must be commensurate with such an unprecedented situation. Instead of launching a sociological study (sic) on the profile of the insurgents or continuing to feed the never-ending pit of "suburb grants":

In the photo, from left to right: Noëlle Lenoir, Anton Prohaska, Former Ambassador of Austria to France, his wife, Alex and Philippe Valletoux (2017, Hôtel Matignon).

Alex Marquardt, founding partner of the Paris office of the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel in 2000, passed away on July 21. His sudden death comes as a shock. Alex was an immense and brilliant lawyer, an internationally recognized arbitrator and an expert in Common Law as well as in French, German and Austrian law. Having studied in Munich, Paris and Vienna, and then at Columbia Law School in New York, his encyclopedic legal knowledge, legal acumen and sharp intellect enabled him to handle the most complex cases, the very ones in which he loved to excel.

On this 14 July 2023, a salute to our army and to all those who risk their lives in defence of the nation and their fellow citizens, and our common Security in Europe.

"During this conference, I drew a parallel between my youth "after the end of civilisation", referring to Nazism, and today's youth, particularly the students at the Ecole Normale Supérieure who made up the audience, drawing their attention to the risk that they were "on the eve of the end of democracy”. It's up to them to decide.