Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 7, 2003|Volume 32, Number 10

Harold Hongju Koh

Harold Koh is appointed
as next Law School dean

President Richard C. Levin announced the appointment of Harold Hongju Koh, an expert on human rights and international law, as dean of the Law School.

Koh, who has taught at the Law School since 1985, served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor from 1998 to 2001.

"As a scholar, teacher, lawyer, and public servant, Harold Koh embodies those qualities that distinguish Yale's great Law School -- a love of learning and a passion for justice," Levin said. "He is a natural leader who has earned the overwhelming support and confidence of faculty, students, alumni, and staff. We all look forward to his stewardship."

Koh, 48, is one of the country's leading experts on international law, international human rights, national security law and international economic law. He has received more than 20 awards for his human rights work. He was named by American Lawyer magazine in 1997 as one of the nation's 45 leading public sector lawyers under the age of 45. In 2000, he was named by the magazine "A" as one of the 100 most influential Asian-Americans of the 1990s.

"It is the greatest honor of my life to be asked to serve as dean of the world's leading law school," said Koh, the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law. "For four decades I have been privileged to participate in that unique community of commitment to world-class scholarship, public service, and professional excellence that Yale Law School represents. I look forward to leading this school I love into a new global century."

Koh has written more than 80 articles. He is author or co-editor of the books "Different But Equal: The Human Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities," "Transnational Business Problems," "Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights," "The Justice Harry Blackmun Supreme Court Oral History," "Transnational Legal Problems" and "The National Security Constitution," which won the American Political Science Association's award as best book on the American presidency. His current research concerns why nations do or do not obey international law.

A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford and Harvard Law School, Koh served as law clerk to Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit, and Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before coming to Yale, he practiced law at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington and Burling and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Koh is an honorary fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford (where he was the 1997 Waynflete Lecturer), and has been a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is an overseer of Harvard University and a member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School, an editor of the American Journal of International Law and a member of the American Law Institute. He has received Guggenheim and Century Foundation Fellowships and has been awarded seven honorary doctorates and law school medals from the Villanova Law School and Touro Law School. In 2003, Columbia Law School awarded him the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award for his contributions to international law.

Koh, whose five-year term begins in July, will succeed Anthony Kronman, who is stepping down after 10 years as dean. "Under his leadership the School has strengthened and deepened, innovative programs have been developed, and the facilities have been splendidly renewed," Levin said of Kronman.

The Koh family came to New Haven in 1961. Koh, his brother, Howard, his mother, Dr. Hesung Chun Koh, and his father, the late Dr. Kwang Lim Koh, were recently named to the K100 -- the 100 leading Koreans and Korean-Americans in the last century of Korean immigration to the United States. His parents and his sister, Jean Koh Peters, all taught at the Law School. Koh lives in New Haven with his wife, Mary-Christy Fisher, an attorney at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, and their children, Emily and William.

Levin thanked the Law School dean search committee, chaired by Professor Paul Kahn, and its members: Professors Bruce Ackerman, Brett Dignam, Drew Days, Al Klevorick, John Langbein, Kate Stith and Kenji Yoshino.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Harold Koh is appointed as next Law School dean

Clinton asserts 'shared responsibilities' among nations . . .

'Women Mentoring Women' program launched

Budget plans for the coming year

Event to explore ethics of media coverage in wartime

Colleges' sustainable dining initiatives are focus of conference

Women astronauts will talk about their 'Place in Space'

Computer scientists to develop ways to protect privacy online

Exhibit looks at Robert Damora's '70 Years of Total Architecture'

Yale Rep show explores collision of politics and culture in America

Her native landscape inspires Irish writer's 'desperate themes'

DeStefano hopes 'game plan' will bring him to Olympics

Study: Recovery rates from childhood leukemia . . .

Memory-enhancing drugs may actually worsen . . .

Dr. Robert Arnstein, counselor to generations of students, dies

World-renowned oncologist Dr. Paul Calabresi passes away

Rare form of obsessive compulsive disorder linked to gene mutation

Older patients may not be prepared to receive diagnosis, study says

Symposium will examine 'American Literary Globalism' . . .

Koerner Center to showcase emeritus faculty member's works

Researchers sequence and analyze the DNA of an ancient parasite

Two books on slavery are winners of the Douglass Prize

United Way Campaign nears halfway mark in meeting its goal

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes