UC Law lecture examines US, Iran Conflict

Ryan Goodman, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, will discuss the U.S. – Iran conflict and the implications for how states engage each other in his lecture “The U.S. – Iran Conflict and its Challenges to International Law.” The event will be held at 12:15 P.M., Thursday, Feb. 20, in Room 114 at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. This event is the 2020 Robert S. Marx lecture.

About the lecture

Both sides in the U.S. – Iran conflict have framed their actions in international law, but their behavior and justifications threaten to undermine long settled legal rules and set precedents with unintended future consequences.  This lecture focuses on the justifications each side has given for their resort to armed force, as well as the hidden implications for how states more generally engage each other as they rely on military partners and proxy forces.

About the lecturer

Prof. Ryan Goodman

Professor Ryan Goodman

Ryan Goodman is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and founding co-editor-in-chief of the online national security publication Just Security.  Goodman is also co-director of the Reiss Center on Law and Security and NYU, and is professor of politics and professor of sociology at NYU. Previously, he served as special counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. Before joining NYU, he was the inaugural Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School and the director of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of International Law.

Goodman has published articles in leading law reviews and has also co-authored several books, including Socializing States: Promoting Human Rights Through International Law with Derek Jinks (2013) (winner of top annual book award by the American Society of International Law). His work makes significant contributions to the law of armed conflict, human rights law, and US national security law. The US Supreme Court relied on Goodman’s amicus briefs in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld when it overturned the government’s system of military commissions, and in Lawrence v. Texas, when it overturned an anti-sodomy statute.

Goodman holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD from Yale University.

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