Beth Stephens, a distinguished professor of law, has published a book and a variety of articles on the
relationship between international and domestic law, focusing on the
enforcement of international norms and on business and human rights. She
previously was in charge of the human rights docket at the Center for
Constitutional Rights in New York and continues to litigate human rights
cases.
She coauthored a book analyzing U.S. enforcement of human rights
norms, International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts (Martinus
Nijhoff Publishers, 2nd ed., 2008). She has also written on the
international law norms governing corporations, and has consulted with
human rights groups on negotiations for a new treaty on business and
human rights.
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, Professor 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 and 2010.
As a cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights
and a former member of the board of directors of the Center for Justice
and Accountability, Professor 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. She was co-counsel for the plaintiffs
in Samantar v. Yousuf, a human rights case decided by the Supreme Court in May 2010, in which the court ruled 9-0 for her clients.
Professor Stephens graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University,
received her J.D. degree from the law school of the University of
California, Berkeley, and clerked for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the
California Supreme Court. She spent six years studying the changing of
the legal system in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
