Meet the Speaker: Toshiyuki Kono

Prof. Toshiyuki Kono is emeritus professor of private international law at Kyushy University Graduate School of Law in Japan. His research fields cover private international law (PIL) and heritage law. He has lectured at other leading academic institutions and international organizations, such as special lectures on “Efficiency in Private International Law” at the Hague Academy of International Law (2013) or the keynote lecture for the 25th anniversary of 1995 UNIDROIT Convention Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (2020). He led many international research projects, including the ILA Committee on IP and PIL and, as its outcome, the Kyoto Guidelines on IP and PIL (2020). He holds Titular membership of the International Academy of Comparative Law and serves as a director of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. Prof. Kono has been active in cultural heritage conservation over the last twenty years. He served as the eighth president of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), an advisory body of UNESCO for heritage conservation, between 2017 and 2020. In 2019, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded him the Reimar Lüst Prize for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchanges.