Leila N. Sadat, J.D., the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law, has been appointed director of the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies by Kent D. Syverud, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A. Shepley University Professor. Michael Peil J.D., assistant dean for international programs, is the new executive director of the Harris Institute. The Harris Institute is a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law with the goal of preparing lawyers for the professional challenges of the 21st century.
Sadat succeeds John O. Haley, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law, as director.
“The Whitney Harris Institute has been an extraordinary force to invigorate the law school’s and university’s work in international and comparative law,” Syverud said. “I am delighted that Professor Leila Sadat and Dean Michael Peil are assuming these new leadership roles in the institute.”
Sadat, an internationally recognized authority on international criminal law and human rights and a prolific scholar, has published in leading journals in the United States and abroad. She is particularly well-known for her expertise on the International Criminal Court and was a delegate to the U.N. Preparatory Committee and to the 1998 diplomatic conference in Rome at which the court was established. She is the author of the award-winning monograph “The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law,” which was supported by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace.
At the law school, Sadat teaches international, comparative and U.S. law courses. She also directs the Summer Institute for Global Justice, which brings together U.S. and foreign law students in a summer course of study held at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Sadat serves as secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law and vice president of the International Law Association (American branch) and the International Association of Penal Law and is a member of the American Law Institute. She has also served as a member of the Executive Council, Executive Committee and Awards Committee for the American Society of International Law.
Peil, a lecturer in law, served for several years as executive director of the International Law Students Association in Chicago. He has taught European Union law at DePaul University College of Law and international law under the aegis of the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Initiative in Armenia.