Félix Peña Murray is a specialist in international economic
relations, international commercial law and economic integration.
Born in Rosario, Argentina (father, Félix Alberto Peña
and mother, María Elena Murray de Peña), on June 26, 1938,
he is married with Clara Braun Cantilo and has five children (Ignacio,
Tomás, Julián, Andrés y Marcos).
He attended Primary School (Colegio Mariano Moreno) and Secondary School
(Colegio Nacional Nº 2), both in Rosario. Between 1955 and 1962
he held a position as scribe at the Labor Chamber of the City of Rosario.
Between February 1959 and March 1960 he completed the mandatory military
service at the 11th Infantry Regiment in Rosario.
He earned his Law degree from Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa
Fe (1956-1962); his Law Doctorate from the University of Madrid (1962-1965)
and his Master in European Law from the Catholic University of Louvain
(Leuven), Belgium (1963-1965), where he also studied Economy (1964).
His doctorate course at University of Madrid was completed with Professor
Mariano Aguilar Navarro. His doctoral thesis on "Sanctions in the
Inter American System -an Analysis of the Sanctions to Cuba within OAS"
(in Spanish) was completed under the direction of Professor Don Antonio
Truyol y Serra, and Professor Julio González Campos. The Examination
Committee was chaired by Professor Joaquín Ruiz Jiménez.
The thesis was graded as "outstanding". This work is not published.
It is included on www.felixpena.com.ar.
At the Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), his thesis on "The
Participation of the Parliamentary Assembly in the Conclusion of Association
Agreements " (in French) was directed by Professor Sylvio Marcus-Helmons,
under the supervision of Professor Etienne Cerexhe. It was presented
by Professor Pierre Wigny. This work is not published. A Spanish translation
is included on www.felixpena.com.ar.
He is currently Director of the Institute for International Trade at
ICBC Foundation (https://www.fundacionicbc.com.ar/);
Professor of International Commercial Relations, Director of the Master
in International Commercial Relations and Director of the Jean Monnet
Module and of the Interdisciplinary Center for International Studies
at the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) (http://www.untref.edu.ar);
Founding Counselor and member of the Executive Committee of the Argentine
Council for International Relations (CARI), (http://www.cari.org.ar);
President of the Academic Council of Export-Ar Foundation; Member of
the Group of Experts of the Mercosur Chaire of Sciences-Po Paris (http://www.chairemercosur.sciences-po.fr);
Member of the Evian Group Brains Trust (http://www.eviangroup.org)
and Academic Consultant to the Mercosur Network for Economic Research
(http://www.redmercosur.org.uy).
He forms part of the list of Argentine arbitrators of the mechanism
for the settlement of disputes of the Mercosur- Olivos Protocol. He
has also formed part of the group of arbitrators of the ICSID and the
WTO.
He held the position of Undersecretary of Foreign Trade at the Ministry
of Economy of Argentina and was appointed full member of the Common
Market Group of Mercosur (1998-99). He acted as external consultant
for Moltedo Law Firm (2000-2002) and formed part of the group of experts
who prepared the project of the Protocol for the Mercosur Parliament
(2005).
Previously, he had been Executive Director of the Europe-Argentina
Club (1992-98); formed part of the Law Firm of Dr. Hector Alegría
(1994-98); was Director of the Andina Foundation and member of the Board
of Gobierno y Sociedad Foundation. He was also Undersecretary of Economic
Integration of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, as such,
National Coordinator of the Common Market Group of the Mercosur (1991-1992).
He also held the positions of President of the Inter-Governmental Committee
of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway (1991-92); Integration Manager
of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) (1984-1990) and advisor
to the IDB President on integration issues (1990-91). He was Undersecretary
of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Argentina (1982-83); ad-hoc legal advisor of the General Secretary
of the LAFTA during the period of negotiation and implementation of
the Montevideo Treaty of 1980, which created the LAIA (1980-1981); Academic
Secretary at the CARI (1978-1982); Director of the Institute for the
Integration of Latin America INTAL-IDB (1975-77) and Head of the Legal
Studies Area at the INTAL (1966-75). In this last role he contributed
with the legal advice for the Board of the Cartagena Agreement in the
development of decisions on foreign investments, intellectual property
and multinational Andean companies, as well as with the technical work
prior to the preparation of the project of the Andean Court of Justice.
He also participated in the legal-institutional counseling of SELA (Latin
American and Caribbean Economic System), CARICOM (Caribbean Community)
and SIECA (Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration).
He is a lecturer and frequently participates in diverse academic and
business events, both in Argentina and abroad. He is the author of many
publications (articles published in books and specialized journals)
in the field of economic integration, commercial international law and
international economic relations, among which stands out the book he
co-wrote with Professor Celso Lafer -with a foreword by Helio Jaguaribe-
entitled "Argentina and Brazil in the System of International Relations",
published in Buenos Aires (in Spanish) and Sao Paulo (in Portuguese)
in 1973. More recently he has published the book "Moments and Perspectives:
Argentina in Latin America and the World" (in Spanish) Eduntref
2003, with a foreword by Ambassador Carlos Manuel Muñiz. Occasionally
he writes in newspapers such as La Nación (in the Foreign Trade
Section); El Cronista; Valor Económico and Gazeta Mercantil,
also in AmericaEconomía. He is a member of the Advisory Board
of the periodicals Archivos del Presente and Revista de Comercio Exterior,
FUNCEX, Río de Janeiro. Among his most recent publications we
can mention "Overview of New Trends in Dispute Settlement Mechanisms
under Preferential Trade Agreements", in "Inter-Governmental
Trade Dispute Settlement: Multilateral and Regional Approaches",
Cameron May, London 2004 (all his articles and papers are included in
www.felixpena.com.ar.
He is currently doing research work on the subject "Methods of
Consensual Agreement between Sovereign Nations". He plans to finish
it and publish a book shortly.
Mr. Peña has been a consultant to many international organizations
(IADB, ICSID-World Bank, LAIA, Andean Community, CARICOM, Central American
Common Market, UNCTAD, Latin American Economic System, UNDP, UNIDO,
IRELA-Latin American Centre for European Relations, and Ibero American
General Secretariat), and has collaborated with business institutions
in subjects of his expertise (UIA-Argentine Industrial Union, IDEA,
Argentine Construction Union and Argentine Construction Chamber). In
2003, by request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he collaborated
as an expert with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in a report on
the work methods of the Ibero-American Summits. In 2004, he was a consultant
to the IADB in the evaluation of a project in cooperation with the Industry
and Trade Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy and Production.
He has been a Professor and Lecturer in several universities of Argentina
(Universidad del Salvador; Universidad de Belgrano; Universidad de Ciencias
Empresariales y Sociales; Universidad de Buenos Aires - Maestría
de Mercosur) and Brazill (Universidad de Sao Paulo; Universidad Luterana
del Brasil; Universidad de Brasilia). He was a visiting researcher at
the Institute for International Relations of the University of California
at Berkeley (January-March1973), under the direction of Professor Ernst
Hass. He formed part of the Group for International Law Studies of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1970-1974). Currently he
forms part of the group of experts of the Mercosur Sciences Chaire-Po
Paris and of the Evian Group Brains Trust. During the period 2002-2004
he was a visiting lecturer at the Mercosur Sciences Chaire-Po Paris
and at the Course in Sciences-Po Paris in Poitiers, France. During the
same period he lectured at the Master of International Trade Negotiations
-lato sensu- at the University of Brasilia.
Aside from Spanish, Mr. Peña is fluent in French and English
and reads and understands Portuguese and Italian.
He has been decorated by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France,
Bolivia and the late Yugoslavia.
