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, torture, and 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
(Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Second Edition, 2008). She also taught an international
human rights clinic at Yale Law School from 1994 to 1996, and has taught in the
Oxford University International Human Rights Program. 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 litigation as well.
Her publications include "The Story of Doe v. Unocal," in Human Rights
Advocacy Stories (Foundation Press, 2009); "Judicial Deference and the
Unreasonable Views of the Bush Administration" (Brooklyn Journal of
International Law), "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), Remedies for
International Human Rights Violations" (Yale 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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