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David J. Scheffer

David J. Scheffer
Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law
Director, Center for International Human Rights

Phone: (312) 503-2224
E-mail: d-scheffer@law.northwestern.edu

SSRN Author Page

Related Links: Center for International Human Rights | LLM (International Human Rights Concentration)

David Scheffer holds an endowed professorship and serves as the Director of the Center for International Human Rights. He teaches International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, and Corporate Human Rights Responsibility. Scheffer supervises the International Externship Program. He received the Dean’s Teaching Award 2007-2008.

Scheffer was previously the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001) and led the U.S. delegation in U.N. talks establishing the International Criminal Court. During his ambassadorship, he negotiated and coordinated U.S. support for the establishment and operation of international and hybrid criminal tribunals and U.S. responses to atrocities anywhere in the world. Scheffer also headed the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group. During the first term of the Clinton Administration, he served as senior adviser and counsel to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Madeleine Albright, and served from 1993 through 1996 on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council. Scheffer recently held visiting professorships at Northwestern Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and George Washington University Law School and taught earlier at Duke University School of Law and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He has published extensively on international legal and political issues and appears regularly in the national and international media. Scheffer is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars, the American Society of International Law (formerly serving on the Executive Council), and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association (2004-2008).

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • International Human Rights Law
  • International Criminal Law/Law of War
  • Public International Law
  • International Institutions Law
  • Clinical Teaching

PUBLICATIONS

Recent Publications

  • A Pragmatic Approach to Jurisdictional and Definitional Requirements for the Crime of Aggression in the Rome Statute , 41 CASE WESTERN RESERVE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 397-411 , 2009
  • Tenth Annual Grotius Lecture Response: For Love of Country and International Criminal Law, Further Reflections, 24 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW 665-677 , 2009
  • Introduction: Atrocity Crimes Litigation During 2008 , 7 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS 161-169 , 2009
  • Cross-Fire Discussion of Lessons Learned from the Trials of Slobodan Miloševic, Charles Taylor, and Saddam Hussein , Criminal Jurisdiction 100 Years After the 1907 Hague Peace Conference , 2009
  • Elevate Your Vision , 17 ILSA Quarterly 54-59, April 2009

EDUCATION

  • AB, Harvard University
  • BA (Honour School of Jurisprudence), Oxford University
  • LLM, Georgetown University

PRIOR APPOINTMENTS

  • Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
  • Senior Vice President, U.N. Association of the U.S.A.
  • Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Senior Consultant, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives
  • International Affairs Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Associate, Coudert Brothers
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