Dean Daniel Abebe 2024 portrait

Daniel Abebe

  • Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law
Education

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2013
M.A., University of Chicago, 2006
J.D., Harvard Law School, 2000
B.A., Maryville University of St. Louis, 1997

Areas of Study
Areas of Specialty

Constitutional Law of U.S. Foreign Affairs 
International Law
International Relations Theory
International Politics

Daniel Abebe is Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He became the 16th dean of Columbia Law School on August 1, 2024. 

Dean Abebe’s scholarship centers on the relationship between the constitutional law of U.S. foreign affairs and public international law. His research has been published in leading academic journals, such as International Studies Quarterly, The University of Chicago Law Review, The Supreme Court Review, and the Stanford, Chicago, Virginia, and University of Pennsylvania journals of international law, and he has presented at conferences and symposia around the world. Dean Abebe has taught Property, Foreign Relations Law, Conflict of Laws, Public International Law, and Legal Issues in International Transactions.

Before joining Columbia Law School, Dean Abebe served as vice provost for academic affairs and governance at the University of Chicago, where he was responsible for stewarding critical aspects of university-wide academic life as well as important strategic assignments, such as articulating and affirming the principles of free expression and institutional neutrality. He was the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School and served as deputy dean from 2016 to 2018, prior to his tenure in the Office of the Provost from 2018 to 2024. 

Dean Abebe is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Higher Learning Commission, and a member of the Board of the Knight First Amendment Institute. He previously served as a member of the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory, and as chair of the Board of Directors of Chapin Hall and the Board of Directors of the University of Chicago Charter School. He clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, and he worked at the New York office of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Publications

Articles
  • “The Social Science Approach to International Law,” (with Adam Chilton & Tom Ginsburg), 22 Chicago Journal of International Law 1 (2021)
  • “The Ethiopian Constitution and Ethnic Federalism,” (Aziz Z. Huq & Tom Ginsburg, eds. 2020), in From Parchment to Practice: Implementing New Constitutions 
  • “The Dejudicialization of International Politics?,” (with Tom Ginsburg), 63 International Studies Quarterly 521 (2019)
  • “Does International Human Rights Law in African Courts Make a Difference?,” 56 Virginia Journal of International Law 527 (2017)
  • “Cyber War, International Politics, and Institutional Design,” 83 The University of Chicago Law Review 1 (2016)
  • “Why Comparative International Law Needs International Relations Theory,” (Anthea Roberts, Pierre-Hugues Verdier, Mila Versteeg, Paul Stephan, eds. 2016), in Comparative International Law
  • “Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Nile: The Economics of International Water Law,” 15 Chicago Journal of International Law (2014)
  • “Foreign Affairs Federalism: A Revisionist Approach,” (with Aziz Z. Huq), 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 723 (2013)
  • “The Global Determinants of Foreign Affairs Law,” 49 Stanford Journal of International Law 1 (2013)
  • “One Voice or Many? The Political Question Doctrine and Acoustic Dissonance in Foreign Affairs,” 2012 The Supreme Court Review 233 (2013)
  • “Rethinking the Costs of International Delegations,” 34 University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 491 (2012)
  • “The Flaws of Foreign Affairs Legalism,” (with Eric Posner), 51 Virginia Journal of International Law 507 (2011)
  • “International Agreements, Internal Heterogeneity, and Climate Change: The ‘Two Chinas’ Problem,” (with Jonathan Masur), 50 Virginia Journal of International Law 325 (2010)
  • “Great Power Politics and the Structure of Foreign Relations Law,” 10 Chicago Journal of International Law 125 (2009)
  • “Not Just Doctrine: The True Motivation for Federal Incorporation and International Human Rights Litigation,” Michigan Journal of International Law (2007)
Book Reviews and Op-Eds
  • “Between East and West” (reviewing Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order, by Rajan Menon & Eugene B. Rumer), The New Rambler, July 20, 2015
  • “Making the Beautiful Game Beautiful Again,” (with William A. Birdthistle), Chicago Tribune, June 7, 2015
  • “I.C.C.’s Dismal Record Comes at Too High a Price,” New York Times Room for Debate, December 12, 2014

Select Activities and Affiliations

  • Member, Board of Trustees, Higher Learning Commission, 2022–present
  • Elected Member, American Law Institute, 2017–present

Related News

Read All Stories More in The Media