Lori Damrosch

Lori Fisler Damrosch

  • Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy
Education

J.D., Yale Law School, 1976
B.A., Yale College, 1973

Areas of Study
Areas of Specialty

Constitution and Foreign Affairs
Public International Law
Enforcing International Law
International Criminal Law

Lori Damrosch teaches and writes on public international law and the U.S. law of foreign relations. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Department of State Advisory Committee on International Law, and other international law and human rights organizations.

Damrosch has held numerous fellowships and lectures widely on issues in international law. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Institut de Droit International. She has been a resident fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. In 2015, Damrosch was presented with the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award by the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. That same year, Damrosch won a grant from the Columbia University President’s Global Innovation Fund to convene the conference “International Legal Dialogue—Middle East North Africa” at the Columbia Global Center in Amman, Jordan.

She has held numerous leadership positions in the American Society of International Law (ASIL), where she served as president from 2014 to 2016 and is currently honorary vice president. She organized a U.S.-Soviet (later U.S.-Russian) research project on international law on behalf of ASIL. She has served on the editorial board of the American Journal of International Law in various capacities since 1990, including as the journal’s co-editor in chief from 2003 to 2013 and as an honorary editor since 2019. 

Damrosch is the co-editor of the casebook International Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed. 2019). She is the author of Enforcing International Law Through Non-Forcible Measures (1997), resulting from her lectures at the Hague Academy of International Law, and she gave the general course on public international law at the Hague Academy in 2021. Damrosch also is the editor of Enforcing Restraint: Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts (1993) and The International Court of Justice at a Crossroads (1987) and she co-edited Beyond Confrontation: International Law for the Post–Cold War Era (1995) and Law and Force in the New International Order (1991).

Damrosch brings experience in government and private practice to her teaching. Before joining Columbia Law, in 1984, she practiced law with Sullivan & Cromwell and served in the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, with responsibilities including European and Canadian affairs, international antitrust, aviation, and trade. She served as a law clerk for Judge Jon O. Newman, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut.

Publications

  • International Law: Cases and Materials and Basic Documents Supplement (St. Paul, Minn: West Publishing Company, 2019) (7th ed., with Sean Murphy; 4th & 5th editions with Louis Henkin, Richard Pugh, Oscar Schachter & Hans Smit)
  • “The Legitimacy of Economic Sanctions as Countermeasures for Wrongful Acts,” 37 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 249 & 47 Ecology L. Q. 95 (2019)
  • “Article 56,” in The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary 1511-1527 (Andreas Zimmermann & Christian J. Tams, eds., Oxford Univ. Press, 3rd ed., 2019) 
  • “The Sources of Immunity Law – Between International and Domestic Law” in The Cambridge Handbook of Immunities and International Law 40-60 (Tom Ruys et al., eds., 2019) 
  • “Remarks on Panel: How International Is International Law?” 111 Proc. Am. Soc’y Int’l L. 69 (2017)
  • “Military Activities in the UNCLOS Compulsory Dispute Settlement System: Implications of the South China Sea Arbitration for U.S. Ratification of UNCLOS,” in Symposium on the South China Sea Arbitration, 110 AJIL Unbound 273 (Am. J. Int’l L. online), September 2016 
  • “International Legal Dialogue – Middle East North Africa: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 32, Issue 1, January/March 2016 
  • “Perspectives on the Iran Nuclear Accord, the Paris Attacks, and International Law: From the 1979 Hostage Crisis to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Beyond: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 31, Issue 4, October/December 2015 
  • “International Law and the South China Sea: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 31, Issue 3, July/September 2015 
  • “Planning for a Conference in the Middle East: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 31, Issue 2, April/June 2015 
  • “International Law Weekend 2014 Keynote Address: Democratization of Foreign Policy and International Law, 1914-2014,” 21 ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law 281 (2015) 
  • “Torture: Reports of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the United Nations Committee against Torture: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 31, Issue 1, January/March 2015 
  • “Democratization of Foreign Policy and International Law, 1914-2014, Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 30, Issue 4, October/December 2014 
  • “China and International Law: Trans-Pacific Dialogues over Global, Regional, and Local Issues: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 30, Issue 3, July/September 2014 
  • “The ‘American’ and the ‘International’ in the American Society of International Law: Notes from the President,” ASIL Newsletter, Vol. 30, Issue 2, April/June 2014 
  • “The Impact of the Nicaragua Case on the Court and Its Role: Harmful, Helpful, or In Between?” 25 Leiden J. Int’l L. 135 (2012) 
  • “Gross and Systematic Violations of Human Rights,” 4 Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law 597-603 (Rüdiger Wolfrum et al., eds., electronic and print editions, Oxford University Press, 2012) 
  • “Changing the International Law of Sovereign Immunity Through National Decisions,” 44 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 1185 (2011) 
  • “Medellin and Sanchez-Llamas: Treaties from John Jay to John Roberts,” in International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change 451-464 (David L. Sloss, Michael D. Ramsey & William S. Dodge, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011) 
  • Remarks on Panel, “History of International Law at the U.S. Supreme Court,” 105 Proc. Am. Soc’y Int’l L. 538 (2011) 
  • “Louis Henkin (1917-2010),” 105 Am. J. Int’l L. 287 (2011) 
  • “Louis Henkin: Courage and Convictions,” 49 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 5 (2010) 
  • Book review of Thomas Buergenthal, A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, 104 Am. J. Int’l L. 307 (2010) 
  • Editorial comment, “Book Reviews and Libel Proceedings,” 104 Am. J. Int’l L. 226 (2010) (co-authored with Richard B. Bilder, David D. Caron & Bernard H. Oxman) 
  • “Codification and Legal Issues,” in The United Nations and Nuclear Orders (Jane Boulden, Ramesh Thakur & Thomas Weiss eds., Tokyo and New York: United Nations University Press, 2009) 
  • “Comparative Enforcement of International Judgments,” 103 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. (2009) 
  • “International Courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Rule of Law,” in Sesquicentennial Essays of the Faculty of Columbia Law School: 1858-2008 (2008) 
  • “Remarks on the Future of International Law,” 101 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 233 (2007) 
  • “Editors’ Introduction: Centennial Essays in Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the American Journal of International Law and the American Society of International Law” (with Bernard H. Oxman) (Am. Soc’y Int’l L. 2007) 
  • “Domestic Enforcement of International Decisions,” 100 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 234 (2006) 
  • “The ‘American’ and the ‘International’ in the American Journal of International Law,” 100 Am. J. Int’l L. 2 (2006) 
  • “War and Uncertainty,” 114 Yale L. J. 1405 (2005) 
  • “Discussion: Medellin v. Dretke: Federalism and International Law,” 43 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 667 (2005) (edited transcript of panel) 
  • “Editors’ Introduction, Agora: ICJ Advisory Opinion on Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” 99 Am. J. Int’l L. 1 (2005) (with Bernard H. Oxman)
  • “The United States Congress, the German Bundestag, and NATO’s Intervention in Kosovo,” in Hans Born & Heiner Hänggi (eds.), The “Double Democratic Deficit”: Parliamentary Accountability and the Use of Force Under International Auspices, Ashgate, 2004
  • “The International Court of Justice and Other International Tribunals,” in Mary Hawkesworth & Maurice Kogan (eds.), Encyclopedia of Government and Politics, Routledge, 2004 (2nd edition)
  • “Comment: Connecting the Threads in the Fabric of International Law,” in Stephen Macedo (ed.), Universal Jurisdiction: National Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes Under International Law, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004
  • “Editors’ Introduction, Agora: The United States Constitution and International Law,” American Journal of International Law, 2004
  • “Treaties and International Regulation,” American Society International Law Proceedings, 2004
  • “Remembering Oscar Schachter,” Columbia Law Review, 2004
  • “Oscar Schachter (1915–2003),” American Journal of International Law, 2003

Honors and Awards

Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law

2015

Certificate of Merit, American Society of International Law

1988

Francis Deák Prize, American Journal of International Law

1981

Superior Honor Award, Department of State

1980

Affiliations and Professional Experience

  • Member, Board of Editors, American Journal of International Law 1990–2002; honorary editor 2019–present
  • Department of State Advisory Committee on International Law, 1987–present
  • President, American Society of International Law, 2014–2016
  • Co-editor in chief, American Journal of International Law, 2003–2013
  • Vice President, American Society of International Law, 1996–1998
  • Member, U.S. National Group, Permanent Court of Arbitration, 1993–2005
  • Consultant for study group on Collective Involvement in Internal Conflicts, Council on Foreign Relations, 1991–1993
  • Coordinator, joint program of research with former Soviet Union, American Society of International Law, 1989-1995
  • Executive Council, American Society of International Law, 1985–1988
  • Board of Editors, International Lawyer, 1984–1987
  • American Arbitration Association, International Law Committee, 1982–1989
  • Secretary, Committee on International Law, New York City Bar Association, 1981–1984
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