Professor of Law. Professor Stephens earned
her B.A. magna cum laude at Harvard University in 1976 and her J.D. at
the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California (Berkeley)
in 1980. She clerked for two years for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the
California Supreme Court, then spent six years in Nicaragua
investigating issues of law reform and human rights. As a staff
attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York
from 1990 to 1996, Professor Stephens litigated international human
rights cases in U.S. federal court, representing victims of genocide,
rape, and other torture, and of war crimes. In 1995, she earned the
Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice,
in recognition of her work on these human rights cases; she was a
finalist for the same award in 2001. She earned a MacArthur
Foundation Research and Writing Grant in 1995 and coauthored a book on
this developing line of litigation, International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts
(Transnational Publishers, Inc., 1996) (a second edition will be
published in 2006). She also taught an international human rights
clinic at Yale Law School from 1994 to 1996. Professor Stephens
continues to litigate pro bono international human rights cases as a
CCR cooperating attorney. She is a member of the Board of Directors of
the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and consults on CJA's
litigtion as well. Her publications include "Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain:
'The Door Is Still Ajar' for Human Rights Litigation in U.S.
Courts" (Brooklyn Law Review), "Upsetting Checks and Balances: The Bush Administration's Efforts to Limit Human Rights Litigation" (Harvard Human Rights Journal), "Individuals Enforcing International Human Rights Law: The Comparative and Historical Context" (DePaul Law Review), "Translating
Filártiga: A Comparative and International Law Analysis of Domestic
Remedies for International Human Rights Violations" (Yale Journal of International Law), "The Amorality of Profit: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights" (Berkeley Journal of International Law), "Federalism and Foreign Affairs: Congress' Power to 'Define and Punish . . . Offenses against the Law of Nations' " (William and Mary Law Review), and "The Law of Our Land: Customary International Law as Federal Law after Erie" (Fordham Law Review).
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