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 | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links: Center for International Human Rights | LLM (International Human Rights Concentration) | International Externship | Cambodia Tribunal Monitor
David Scheffer holds an endowed professorship and serves as the Director of the Center for International Human Rights. He teaches International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law. Scheffer supervises the International Externship Program. He received the Dean’s Teaching Award 2007-2008 and founded and co-edited (2007-2011) the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor. Scheffer is the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Expert on United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials. He was selected by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the "Top Global Thinkers of 2011."
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 has held visiting professorships at Northwestern Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and George Washington University Law School and taught 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), the American Bar Association, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association (2004-2008). His book, All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton University Press, 2012) received the 2012 Book of the Year Award from the American National Section of the International Association of Penal Law.
Areas of Expertise
- Public International Law
- Clinical Teaching
- International Criminal Law/Law of War
- International Institutions Law
- International Human Rights Law
- Corporate Social Responsibility
Courses
Selected Publications
- ALL THE MISSING SOULS: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS (Princeton University Press, 2012).
- Tribunal Influence in Recent U.S. Jurisprudence on Corporate Liability for Atrocity Crimes in Proceedings of the Fifth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs 47-75 (American Society of International Law, 2012).
- El Significado y la Activación del Crimen de Agresión Bajo el Estatuto de Roma de la Corte Penal Internacional in POLITICA CRIMINAL Art. 6, 209-229 (Julio 2012).
- The International Criminal Court in Routledge Handbook of International Criminal Law (Routledge, 2011).
- The Five Levels of CSR Compliance: The Resiliency of Corporate Liability under the Alien Tort Statute and the Case for a Counterattack Strategy in Compliance Theory in 29 berkeley journal of international law 334-397 (2011). (with Caroline Kaeb)
- Introduction: Atrocity Crimes Litigation During 2009 in 8 northwestern university journal of international human rights 235-244 (2010).
Education
- AB magna cum laude, Harvard University
- BA (Honour School of Jurisprudence), Oxford University
- LLM, Georgetown University
Prior Appointments
- Senior Advisor and Counsel to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
- U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues
- Jennings Randolph 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
