Ruti G. Teitel

Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law; Co-Director, Center for International Law;
Chair, Global Law and Justice Colloquium; Director, Institute for Global Law, Justice, and Policy; Visiting Professor, Hebrew University School of Law, Mt. Scopus

Ruti G. Teitel

Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law
Co-Director, Center for International Law
Chair, Global Law and Justice Colloquium
Director, Institute for Global Law, Justice, and Policy
Visiting Professor, Hebrew University School of Law, Mt. Scopus

Ruti G. Teitel

Contact Information
T 212.431.2322 
E ruti.teitel@nyls.edu 

Faculty Assistant
Tracy S. Persaud
T 212.431.2186
E tracy.persaud@nyls.edu

Education
Cornell, J.D. 1980; Georgetown, B.S. 1977 cum laude

View CV

Profile

An internationally recognized authority on international law, international human rights, transitional justice, and comparative constitutional law, Ruti Teitel is the Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School, Co-Director of the Center for International Law, and Director of the Institute for Global Law, Justice, and Policy. She was a Straus Fellow at New York University Law School’s Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice (2012–13).

Her path-breaking book, Transitional Justice, examines the twentieth century transitions to democracy in many countries. Born in Argentina, Professor Teitel’s interest in the topic grew out of the dilemmas confronting that society in the transition out of junta rule. The book explores the recurring question of how new regimes should respond to past repression, contending that the law can play a profound role in periods of radical change in advancing a new sense of legitimacy.

Professor Teitel has also written Globalizing Transitional Justice, which provides observations and insights on how the practice and discourse of transitional justice has been evolving, especially in relation to the rise of international criminal law and the increasing centrality of international human rights. Her book, Humanity’s Law, explores a paradigm shift in international affairs.

Professor Teitel’s extensive body of scholarly writing on comparative law, human rights, and constitutionalism is published in many law reviews, including: “Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Why International Law Really Matters” in the Global Policy Journal, which won the GPPN and the Global Policy Journal Best Article Prize. She has contributed dozens of book chapters to published volumes relating to law and politics. She also writes on human rights issues for a broader audience, having published in The New York Times, Legal Affairs, Findlaw.com, and Project Syndicate. She serves on the Board of Editors of Oxford’s International Journal of Transitional Justice as well the Editorial Advisory Board of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law.

Professor Teitel has taught at Yale, Fordham, and Tel Aviv Law Schools as well as Columbia University’s Politics Department and its School of International and Public Affairs, where she is currently a Distinguished Research Scholar. She is an affiliated International Relations research scholar at New York University.

She is the founding co-chair of the American Society of International Law, Interest Group on Transitional Justice and Rule of Law. Professor Teitel is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Law Association Human Rights Law Committee.

Courses

Comparative Law

International Criminal Law

International Human Rights Field Placement and Seminar

International Human Rights Law

International Law

Transitional/Global Justice Network

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