Associate Professor of Law. (Patent Law; Contracts; International
Law and Science; International Law and a Just World Order.) Professor Safrin earned her J.D. from Boalt Hall
School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and her B.A. magna cum laude
from Pomona College. She clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was an associate at
the San Francisco law firm of Hanson & Bridgett. For eight years
she was an attorney-adviser at the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S.
Department of State. There she served as legal counsel for the Bureau of Oceans, International Environment, and Scientific Affairs, where she helped negotiate treaties and
international instruments pertaining to biotechnology, biological
diversity, and marine pollution. Prior to that, she served as legal
counsel for diplomatic law and litigation and as legal counsel for
African affairs. She is a recipient of several Department of State
awards for outstanding service. Prior to joining Rutgers in
September 2002, Professor Safrin was an Open Society Institute
Individual Projects Fellow and a visiting scholar at the Environmental
Law Institute in Washington, DC. Her publications include "Chain Reaction: How Property Begets Property" (2007) in the Notre Dame Law Review; "Hyperownership in a Time of Biotechnological Promise: The
International Conflict to Control the Building Blocks of Life" (2004), which was awarded the American Society of International Law Francis Deak Prize, and
"Treaties in Collision: The Biosafety Protocol and the World Trade
Organization Agreements" (2002), both in the American Journal of International Law.