Richard Schaffer is professor emeritus of business law (retired) in the finance department at Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University. He has taught business law, international business law and transactions, and the law of international trade and investment. Professor Schaffer received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi and his LL.M. degree from New York University. From 1976 through 1982 he assisted United Nations agencies in New York, San Jose and Vienna, with projects examining the relationship between corrupt practices, the abuse of power, and socio-economic development, and he served as rapporteur of UN working groups on international economic crime. Schaffer was Director of International Business Studies at ASU and the founder of its international business and business study abroad programs. In the 1980s he consulted and spoke frequently as an advocate for the internationalization of the business school curriculum.

It was during the University of San Diego School of Law's Institute on International and Comparative Law, Paris, 1982, that the original concept for this book was outlined and draft materials first developed. Since his retirement from teaching, he has worked in the international home textile industry on global sourcing, customs and trade matters.