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Joel Richard Paul

Emeritus Alfred and Hanna Fromm Professor of International Law

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Bio

Professor Joel Richard Paul teaches and writes about constitutional law, international business and trade, and foreign relations and national security law.

Professor Paul has taught on the law faculties at U.C. Berkeley, Yale, Leiden, University of Connecticut, and American University.

Professor Paul has lectured or published in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He is the author of “Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution” and “Without Precedent: How John Marshall Invented American Diplomacy.” In his spare time Professor Paul writes stage plays and screenplays.

As the former Associate Academic Dean for Global Programs, he initiated the law school’s 18 global exchange programs and joint degrees, LL.M. program, summer program, and foreign visiting scholars program.

Professor Paul attended Amherst College, B.A. History, Economics and Political Science; the London School of Economics and Political Science; and Harvard Law School, J.D.; Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MALD in international law and economic development.

Paul was the first openly gay man hired on a U.S. law faculty. He has drafted federal trade legislation, advised the Clinton presidential campaign on trade policy, challenged the military’s exclusion of gay service members and brought other first amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before Congress, managed political campaigns, and worked on affordable housing policies. In 1991 Professor Paul corroborated the testimony of Professor Anita Hill before the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas.

Courses Taught: Constitutional Law I and II, International Business Transactions, International Trade Law and Policy, Seminar on Global Inequalities, National Security and Foreign Relations Law, and Public International Law.

Selected Scholarship

Books
Journal Articles
  • The Cost of Free Trade, 22 Brown J. World Aff. 343 (2015). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • The Myth of Economic Interdependence, 11 Waseda Proc. Comp. L. 293 (2009). FULLTEXT
  • The Transformation of International Comity, 71 L. & Contemp. Probs. 19 (Summer 2008). FULLTEXT
  • Do International Trade Institutions Promote Economic Growth?, 9 Hongfan Pinglun 220 (2007).
  • The Bush Doctrine: Making or Breaking Customary International Law?, 27 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 457 (2004). FULLTEXT
  • Do International Trade Institutions Contribute to Economic Growth and Development?, 44 Va. J. Int’l L. 285 (2003). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Resisting Culture, 16 Leiden J. Int’l L. 919 (2003). FULLTEXT
  • Holding Multinational Corporations Responsible Under International Law, 24 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 285 (2001). FULLTEXT
  • Cultural Resistance to Global Governance, 22 Mich. J. Int’l L. 1 (2000). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Is Global Governance Safe for Democracy?, 1 Chi. J. Int’l L. 263 (2000). FULLTEXT
  • Political Corruption as an International Offense, 94 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 56 (2000) (panel remarks). FULLTEXT
  • The Geopolitical Constitution: Executive Expediency and Executive Agreements, 86 Cal. L. Rev. 671 (1998). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Free Trade, Regulatory Competition and the Autonomous Market Fallacy, 1 Colum. J. Eur. L. 29 (1995). FULLTEXT
  • The New Movements in International Economic Law, 10 Am. U. J. Int’l L. & Pol’y 607 (1995). FULLTEXT
  • The Effect of Economic Integration on Environmental Standards, 87 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 470 (1993). FULLTEXT
  • Comity in International Law, 32 Harv. Int’l L.J. 1 (1991) (reprinted in 1 Private International Law and Public Law (Horatia Muir Watt, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing 2016)) . FULLTEXT
  • The Argument Against International Abduction of Criminal Defendants: An Introductory Note, 6 Am. U. J. Int’l L. & Pol’y 527 (1991). FULLTEXT
  • The Isolation of Private International Law, 7 Wis. Int’l L.J. 149 (1988) (reprinted in 1 Private International Law and Public Law (Horatia Muir Watt, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing 2016)) . FULLTEXT
  • Images from Abroad: Making Direct Broadcasting by Satellites Safe for Sovereignty, 9 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 329 (1986). FULLTEXT
  • International Adjudication: Embassy Seizure—United States v. Iran, 21 Harv. Int’l L.J. 268 (1980). FULLTEXT
  • Economic Sanctions Against South Africa?—Lessons from Rhodesia, 3 Fletcher F. 109 (Summer 1979). FULLTEXT
Chapters In Books
  • Executive Agreements (Update), in 2 Encyclopedia of the American Constitution 941 (Leonard Williams Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, & Adam Winkler eds., Macmillan Reference USA 2000). CATALOG
  • Implementing Regulatory Cooperation through Executive Agreements and the Problem of Democratic Accountability, in Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Legal Problems and Political Prospects 385 (George A. Bermann, Matthias Herdegen, & Peter L. Lindseth eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2000). CATALOG
  • Trade Policy Decisionmaking: Competing Explanations, in The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence 217 (Eugene R. Wittkopf & James M. McCormick eds., 3d ed., Rowman & Littlefield 1999) (with Stephen D. Cohen & Robert A. Blecker).
  • Competitive and Non–Competitive Regulatory Markets: The Regulation of Packaging Waste in the EU, in International Regulatory Competition and Coordination: Perspectives on Economic Regulations in Europe and the United States 353 (William Bratton et al. eds., Clarendon Press 1996). CATALOG
  • The New Inter-American Development Policy: EAI and Its Effects on U.S.-Latin American and Caribbean Trade Relations, in Le Libre-Échange dans les Amériques: Une Perspective Continentale 43 (Nicole Lacasse & Louis Perret eds., Wilson & Lafleur 1994 1994).
  • Financing Ocean Mineral Developments: Commentary, in The Developing Order of the Oceans: Proceedings, Law of the Sea Institute Eighteenth Annual Conference 336 (Law of the Sea Institute, Univ. of Hawaii 1985).
Book Reviews
  • Book Review, 110 J. Am. Hist 347 (2023) (reviewing Dustin Gish & Andrew Bibby eds., Rival Visions: How Jefferson and His Contemporaries Defined the Early American Republic (2020)). URL
  • The Rule of Law Is Not For Everyone, 24 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 1046 (2006) (reviewing Philippe Sands, Lawless World (2005)). HEIN WL
  • Book Review, 94 Am. J. Int’l L 206 (2000) (reviewing Robert E. Hudec, Essays on the Nature of International Trade Law (1999)). HEIN WL
Newspaper & Magazine Articles
  • Time Ripe for Japan to Pressure U.S., Japan Times, May 27, 1990.

Education

  • Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
    MALD, International Law and Economic Development

  • Harvard Law School
    J.D., Law

  • The London School of Economics and Political Science
    General Course in International Economics and International Relations

  • Amherst College
    B.A., History, Economics, and Political Science

Links

Courses

  • Foreign Relations Law
  • International Trade Law and Policy
  • Constitutional Law I
  • Constitutional Law II
  • International Business Transactions

Expertise

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