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)

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 Compliance and the Social Mandate. Scheffer supervises the International Externships Program. He received the Dean’s Teaching Award 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 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), and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association (2004-2008).

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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

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 (2010). (with Caroline Kaeb)
Introduction: Atrocity Crimes Litigation During 2009 in 8 northwestern university journal of international human rights 235-244 (2010).
Brief of Amici Curiae U.S. Diplomats in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellants, Alexis Holyweek Sarel, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees, vs. Rio Tinto, plc, et al., Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Appeals Nos. 02-56256, 02-56390 & 09-56381) (January 29, 2010 ).
Whose Lawfare Is It, Anyway? in 43 case western reserve journal of international law 215-227 (2010).
The Complex Crime of Aggression Under the Rome Statute in 23 leiden journal of international law 897-904 (2010).

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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