Faculty and Curriculum

The Global Justice Project at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (the "College") seeks to improve the human condition through collaborative service research and innovative training initiatives. Drawing on a faculty of world-leading expertise, the Global Justice Project supports programs in the fields of conflict and security, climate change and water management, rule of law, democracy, and institutional justice reform, religion, family law, health law, innovation, development, global philanthropy, and mediation.

The College strongly encourages and supports student-initiated professional development opportunities that are related to international law and global justice issues. The College sponsors a Global Initiative Fund through which students may apply for and receive funding for travel related to such opportunities. In the past year, students have received travel-related funding supporting internships in Thailand, Shanghai, Bangalore, and Hanoi; and to attend national security-related conferences in Washington, D.C.

Iraq - The College's Global Justice Project received a $2.5 million grant to fund the Iraqi Judicial Independence Project that will aid the Iraqi government to establish an independent judiciary with adequate legislative and constitutional authority.
http://www.law.utah.edu/news/show-news.asp?NewsID=178
http://www.gjpi.org;

The College also received a $7.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of State to provide assistance to Iraq on constitutional and legislative priorities and capacities. The U.S. Embassy Baghdad Political Section's Office of Constitutional and Legislative Affairs asked the College to work across the spectrum of critically important legal issues facing Iraq this coming year, from constitutional amendments to a national electoral framework and anti-corruption.
http://www.law.utah.edu/news/show-news.asp?NewsID=216

Afghanistan - The College was chosen as a leading training center for the Public Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, a project developed by the U.S. State Department and several private law firms. Organized and presented by professors James Holbrook and Wayne McCormack, 16 prosecutors, 13 men and 3 women, came to the College of Law for three weeks to give lectures and participate in discussions, simulations, and workshops with professors, local judges, and attorneys:
http://www.law.utah.edu/media/show-media.asp?MediaID=493&TypeID=4

Symposia

Non-State Governance - This February 2009 symposium explored a variety of "non-state" issues involving insular religious communities, Indian tribes, survivalists, sects and cults, and others with global reach.
http://www.law.utah.edu/news/show-news.asp?NewsID=206

Trans-boundary Environmental Issues - The College hosted a September 2008 seminar on air, water, and land pollution and resource conflicts that transcend borders.
http://www.law.utah.edu/news/show-news.asp?NewsID=168

Textbook Series

Aspen Publishers Visits College of Law to Discuss New 'Law Across Borders' Textbook Series - Aspen and the College are developing a series of cross-border complements to basic U.S. law courses. The first set of books are forthcoming in 2009-10.
http://www.law.utah.edu/news/show-news.asp?NewsID=61

Faculty

Amos Guiora, professor of law and retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, was recently named a Corresponding Member to the School of Human Rights Research at Utrecht University a Research Fellow at the International Institute on Counter-Terrorism, at The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzeliya, Israel, and a Senior Specialist Fulbright Fellowship for The Netherlands in 2008. Guiora is the author of a number of books including Freedom of Religion-Freedom from Religion: Rights, Conflicts and Obligations-A Comparative Perspective: Israel, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK and US, (forthcoming, 2009).

Christian Johnson, professor of law, teaches courses on corporate finance and tax. He is a frequent speaker on international finance and derivatives, having given workshops over the past 12 months for the Inter-American Development Bank, the Brunei Investment Agency, and EDC (the Canadian Export Development Bank), and a presentation to the University of British Columbia National Centre of Business Law on "Derivatives, Lehman Brothers and Global Systemic Risk."

Chris Whytock, associate professor of law, focuses on transnational litigation, international law and international relations, and comparative law and comparative politics. His publications include "Myth of Mess? International Choice of Law in Action," forthcoming in the New York University Law Review; "Taking Causality Seriously in Comparative Constitutional Law: Insights from Comparative Politics and Comparative Political Economy," in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review; and "Who 'Won' Libya? The Force-Diplomacy Debate and Its Implications for Theory and Policy," in the peer-reviewed political science journal International Security (with Bruce W. Jentleson).

Erika George, professor of law, teaches International Human Rights Law, International Environmental Law, Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law. She is the author of the book Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools (2001). Her recent and forthcoming publications address rights to health care and education in the developing world, as well as issues of corporate responsibility. George is currently teaching a human rights clinic for the U in New York City.

Hiram Chodosh, dean and professor of law, directs the Global Justice Project Iraq, serves as general editor of Aspen's forthcoming global series, Law Across Borders, and is on the executive board of the Afghanistan Justice Reform Public Private Partnership. He also co-edits a book series with Chibli Mallat on Iraq law and has three forthcoming book chapters on corruption, mediation, and counter-terrorism.

James Holbrook, clinical professor of law, teaches courses in interviewing, counseling, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and trial advocacy. In April 2007 he and Dean Hiram Chodosh taught negotiation and mediation in three law schools in southwestern India. He is co-author with Dean Chodosh of ADR Education in Law Schools (Mumbai, India: The American Center, 2007). They also co-authored Filling the Justice Capacity Gap, 2008 G8 Summit Magazine 154-55 (The CAT Company, Inc., 2008). In 2009, Holbrook is serving as Chief of Party of the law school's Global Justice Project Iraq.

Chibli Mallat, Presidential Professor of Law and Professor of Middle Eastern Law and Politics, is the author or editor of over 25 books in French, English and Arabic, the latest Introduction to Middle Eastern Law, Oxford University Press, 2007, pbk 2009; and Iraq: Guide to Law and Policy, Aspen, in press 2009. He is the only EU Jean Monnet Professor of Law in the entire Middle East (formerly at St Joseph's University in Lebanon). Mallat is the senior legal advisor to the University of Utah's ongoing Global Justice Project Iraq, and is Amnesty International's legal advisor for its Middle East Office.

Wayne McCormack, professor of law, teaches constitutional law, terrorism and the international law of crimes, and civil procedure. In 2008, he published two texts, Understanding the Law of Terrorism (Lexis/Nexis) and Legal Responses to Terrorism (Lexis/Nexis 2d ed.). McCormack also edited a volume of essays, Values and Violence (Springer) that included his own essay "Value Choices in the Struggle with Terrorism." Additionally, he presented the lectures Global Federalism: Poverty and Violence to the Dee Lecture Series 2007 and Legal Regimes Affecting Migration presented to the Tanner Center Conference and scheduled for publication in 2009.