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Professor Rutgers School of Law - Camden 217 North Fifth Street Camden, NJ 08102
F: (856) 969-7936
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Biography
Professor Stephens has published a variety of articles on the relationship between international and domestic law, focusing on the enforcement of international human rights norms through domestic courts. She co-authored a book analyzing U.S. enforcement of human rights norms, International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts (second edition, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, forthcoming 2007).
From 1990-1995, she was in charge of the international human rights docket at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, where she litigated a series of cases addressing human rights violations in countries around the world, including Bosnia, Guatemala, Haiti, East Timor and Ethiopia. In 1995, Prof. Stephens received the Trial Lawyers of the Year Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in recognition of her work litigating international human rights claims. She was a finalist for the same award in 2001. As a cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Justice and Accountability, Prof. Stephens continues to litigate human rights cases, including cases filed against U.S.- based corporations alleging responsibility for human rights violations committed in the course of their activities abroad.
Professor Stephens graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, received her J.D. degree from the law school of the University of California at Berkeley, and clerked for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the California Supreme Court. She spent six years studying changing the legal system in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Publications
Book
International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts (Transnational Publishers, Inc. 1996), with M. Ratner (second edition, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, forthcoming 2007)
Articles/Book Chapters
Human Rights and National Courts, in Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2008)
The Story of Doe v. Unocal, in Human Rights Advocacy Stories (Foundation Press, forthcoming 2008) (with K. Redford)
Corporate Accountability for Gross Violations of Human Rights (expert paper prepared for the International Commission of Jurists, Panel on Corporate Complicity) (forthcoming 2007)
Filártiga v. Peña-Irala: From Family Tragedy to Human Rights Accountability, 37 Rutgers L.J. 623 (2006)
Suing for Torture, in ABA International Litigation Manual (ABA Section of International Law and Practice) (2005)
The Alien Tort Claims Act, in Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity (Dinah Shelton, ed. 2005).
Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain: “The Door Is Still Ajar†for Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts, 70 Brook. L. Rev. 533 (2004-2005)
Upsetting Checks and Balances: The Bush Administration’s Flawed Efforts to Limit Human Rights Litigation, 17 Harv. Human Rts. J. 169 (2004)
Accountability for International Crimes: The Synergy Between the International Criminal Court and Alternative Remedies, 21 Wisc. Int’l L.J. 527 (2003)
Accountability for International Crimes: The Synergy Between the International Criminal Court and Alternative Remedies, 21 Wisc. Int’l L.J. 527 (2003)
Individuals Enforcing International Human Rights Law: The Comparative and Historical Context, 52 DePaul Law Review 433 (2002)
Accountability Without Hypocrisy: Consistent Standards, Honest History, 36 New Eng. L. Rev. 919 (2002)
Translating Filartiga: A Comparative and International Law Analysis Of Domestic Remedies For International Human Rights Violations, 27 Yale J. Intl L. 1 (2002)
The Amorality of Profit: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, 22 Berkeley J. Intl L. 45 (2002)
Corporate Liability: Enforcing Human Rights Through Domestic Litigation, 24 Hastings Intl & Comp. L. Rev. 401 (2002)
Taking Pride in International Human Rights Litigation, 2 Chi. J. Intl L. 485 (2001)
Book Review and Note: Remedies in International Human Rights Law, by Dinah Shelton, 95 Am. J. Intl L. 257 (2001)
Federalism and Foreign Affairs: Congress Power to 'Define and Punish . . . Offenses Against the Law of Nations,' 42 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 447 (2000)
Human Rights Accountability: Congress, Federalism and International Law, 6 ILSA J. Intl & Comp. L. 277 (2000)
Corporate Accountability in U.S. Courts for International Human Rights Abuses, in Liability of Multinational Corporations Under International Law 209 (Menno Kamminga & Sam Zia-Zarifi eds., Kluwer Press 2000)
Humanitarian Law and Gender Violence: An End to Centuries of Neglect?, 3 Hofstra L. & Poly Symp. 801 (1999)
The Law of Our Land: Customary International Law as Federal Law After Erie, 66 Fordham L. Rev. 393 (1997)
Expanding Remedies for Human Rights Abuses: Civil Litigation in Domestic Courts, 40 German Y.B. Intl L. 117 (1997), reprinted in 2 Women and International Human Rights Law (Kelly D. Askin & Dorean M. Koenig eds., 2000)
Conceptualizing Violence Under International Law: Do Tort Remedies Fit the Crime?, 3 Albany L. Rev. 579 (1997)
Litigating Customary International Human Rights Norms, 25 Ga. J. Intl & Comp. L. 191 (1995/96)
The Civil Lawsuit as a Remedy for International Human Rights Violations Against Women, 5 Hastings Womens L.J. 143 (1994)
Affecting the Rules for Prosecution of Rape and Other Gender-Based Violence Before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: A Feminist Proposal and Critique, 5 Hastings Womens L.J. 171 (1994), with J. Green, et al.
A Developing Legal System Grapples with an Ancient Problem: Rape in Nicaragua, 12 Womens Rts. L. Rep. 69 (1990)
Changes in the Laws Governing the Parent-Child Relationship in Revolutionary Nicaragua, 12 Hastings Intl & Comp. L. Rev. 137 (1989)
Women and the Atrocities of War, 20 Human Rts. 12 (1993)
Women in Nicaragua, 40 Monthly Review 1 (Sept. 1988)
Miscellaneous Publications
Seeking Remedies for Gender Violence and Other Human Rights Abuses Through Civil Litigation (Remarks), Hague Joint Conf. on Contemporary Issues of Int’l Law (forthcoming 2007)
Sosa, Federal Common Law and Customary International Law: Reaffirming the Federal Courts' Powers (Remarks), 101 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 51 (forthcoming 2007)Civil Litigation in U.S. Courts, Juriste Internacionale (2006)
Accountability for Corporate Abuses (Remarks), 56 Rutgers L. Rev. 101 (2005)
The Alien Tort Claims Act Under Attack (Remarks), 98 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 51 (2004)
Alien Tort Claims and Business Liability (Remarks), 95 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 42 (2001)
Scholars in the Construction and Critique of International Law (Remarks), 94 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 317 (2000)
Suing for Genocide in the United States: The Case of Jane Doe v. Radovan Karadzic, in War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg (Belinda Cooper ed., 1999), with J. Green
Civil Remedies in the United States for International Human Rights Abuses (Remarks), Fourth Hague Joint Conf. Am. Soc’y Int’l L. & Netherlands Soc’y Int’l L. (July 3-5, 1997)
Seeking Recourse for Human Rights Violations in Domestic Courts, 10 Interights Bull. 108 (1996), with J. Green
Tyrants, Terrorists and Torturers Brought to Justice, N.Y.L.J., May 15, 1995 at S5 (Int'l Law Supplement), with M. RatnerUsing Law and the Filártiga Principle in the Fight for Human Rights, 2 ACLU Int'l Civil Liberties Rep. 29 (1993), with M. Ratner
Hypocrisy on Rights, The N.Y. Times (Op-Ed), June 24, 1993, A23
Know Your Rights (1980), legal handbook for San Francisco jail inmates