Law professor Harold H. Koh is named U.S. Assistant Secretary of State

On Oct. 23, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm the appointment of Harold Hongju Koh, the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

"I am deeply humbled by the Senate's action today," said Koh, following the confirmation vote. "It will be hard to leave home, even for a short time, but I look forward to giving my all to help our country to advance the cause of democracy, human rights and labor.

"As a lawyer and professor, I have tried always to speak the truth about human rights conditions; to advocate for human rights based on principle and not politics; and to speak up for those whose rights are being violated, without regard to their ethnicity, religion, political popularity or station in life," he added. "As an official of our government, I will commit myself to do my best to follow those same principles."

A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School, Koh also studied at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1985, he clerked for Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law 1982-83 at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling and 1983-85 as an attorney-adviser at the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Koh has taught and written widely about the law of U.S. foreign policy, international human rights, and international business and trade. He is the coauthor (with H. Steiner and D. Vagts) of "Transnational Legal Problems"; author of "The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair," which was awarded the 1990 Richard E. Neustadt Award by the American Political Science Association as the best book on the American presidency; and author or editor of several forthcoming books, including "Why Nations Obey: A Theory of Compliance with International Law." He is also the editor of the Justice Harry A. Blackmun Oral History Project.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Koh served as director of the Law School's Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights. With his Yale students, he has brought litigation on behalf of Cuban and Haitian refugees, as well as Bosnians, Cubans, East Timorese, Guatemalans and Haitians who were seeking compensation and vindiction for human rights violations.

Koh has received many honors in recognition of his human rights work, including being named the 1997 Outstanding Asian- American Lawyer of the Year by the Asian-American Bar Association of New York. Also that year, The American Lawyer journal named Koh as one of the nation's 45 leading public sector lawyers under the age of 45.

Law School Dean Anthony Kronman noted that Koh has been "a tireless champion of those whose rights have been abused or neglected. I know that he will exercise the duties of his new office with the wisdom, perseverance, dignity and compassion he has always brought to his work."