David J. Scheffer
Clinical Professor Emeritus
Director Emeritus of the Center for International Human Rights
Phone
(312) 503-2224
Biography
David J. Scheffer is Clinical Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Center for International Human Rights at the law school. He retired on September 1, 2020. From 2006 through 2020 he was the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and from 2006 to 2019 the Director of the Center for International Human Rights. He taught international criminal law, international human rights law, and related subjects. Scheffer created the International Externship Program and the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor (www.cambodiatribunal.org).
Areas of Expertise
- International Criminal Law/Law of War
- International Human Rights Law
- International Law
- Business and Human Rights
Selected Publications
- The Sit Room: In The Theater of War and Peace (2019).
- All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton University Press 2012).
- Is the Presumption of Corporate Impunity Dead?, 50 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 213 (2018).
- Twenty-First Century Paradigms on Military Force for Humane Purposes, in Seeking Accountability For The Unlawful Use of Force 493, edited by Leila Nadya Sadat (2018) (with Angela Walker).
- Closing Perspectives, in The Founders: Four Pioneering Individuals Who Launched The First Modern-era International Criminal Tribunals 147, edited by David Crane, Leila Sadat, & Michael Schar (2018).
- Criminal Justice, in The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations 282, edited by Jacob Katz Cogan, Ian Hurd, and Ian Johnstone (Oxford University Press 2016).
Education
- AB magna cum laude, Harvard University
- BA (Honour School of Jurisprudence), Oxford University
- LLM, Georgetown University
Prior Appointments
- Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
- Director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
- 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