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Ruth Wedgwood

Professor Emeritus

Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy

About

Member of the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes; served on the US Secretary of State’s advisory committees on private and public international law and on the CIA historical review panel; US delegate to the UN Human Rights Committee (Geneva and New York, 2003–11); member of US delegations to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Wehrkunde security conference; member of the Pentagon Defense Policy Advisory Board (2003–09) and the Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century; was independent expert for UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; formerly director of studies at Hague Academy for International Law, tenured professor at Yale Law School, visiting professor at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and Charles H. Stockton professor at the US Naval War College; named Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy; was vice president of the American Society of International Law, serves as president of the American branch of the International Law Association and vice chair of Freedom House and is on the board of editors for American Journal of International Law, Journal of Strategic Studies, American Interest, World Policy Journal, National Defense University Prism and National Interest; was law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly of the US Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) and US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun; commentator for BBC, NPR and PBS; JD, Yale University

Expertise

Topics

  • American Defense Policy
  • American Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights and Democracy
  • International Law
  • International Courts and Arbitration
  • International Crimes and Tribunals
  • Multinational Corporations
  • Post-conflict Reconstruction
  • Rule of Law
  • Strategic and Security Issues
  • Terrorism
  • Treaty Negotiations
  • U.S. Congress and Foreign Policy
  • United Nations
  • Use of Force
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction