Charles Martin was a professor of political science and international law at the University of Washington from 1925 to 1962. Martin served in the Coast Artillery Corps of the U.S. Army during World War I and began lecturing at the University of California in 1919. He chaired the political science department at UCLA from 1920 to 1925 and at the University of Washington from 1925 to 1951. Martin traveled to Japan, Southeast Asia, and India to conduct research in the mid-1950s. He authored several books, the last of which was Universalism and Regionalism in International Law and Organization. After his retirement as a full-time professor, Martin taught American studies for a year at the University of the Philippines.