Paul Williams (professor)
Encyclopedia
Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University
, where he teaches in the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law
. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group
(PILPG), a Non-Governmental Organization
(NGO) which provides pro bono legal assistance to countries and governments involved in peace negotiations, drafting post-conflict constitutions, and prosecuting war criminals.
. Dr. Williams has served as a delegation in the Dayton Agreement
negotiations (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Rambouillet Agreement
and Paris negotiations (Kosovo), Ohrid Agreement
negotiations (Macedonia), and Podgorica/Belgrade negotiations for Serbia
and Montenegro
. He has also advised parties to the Key West negotiations for Nagorono-Karabakh, the Oslo and Geneva negotiations for the Sri Lankan Civil War
, the Georgia-Abkhaz conflict negotiations, and the Somalia peace talks. In February 2005, Dr. Williams and the PILPG were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by six governments and the Prosecutor of an International Criminal Tribunal for the work they have done to help in the prosecution of major war criminals, such as Slobodan Milošević
, Charles Taylor (Liberia), and Saddam Hussein
.
Dr. Williams has advised over fifteen governments in Africa, Asia, and Europe including Afghanistan
, Bosnia, Iraq
, Kosovo
, Montenegro
and Nagorono-Karabakh as well as the President of Macedonia, Foreign Minister of Montenegro, President of Estonia, and the Foreign Minister of East Timor. Advised topics include drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions, issues of state recognition, self-determination, and state succession, and border sea demarcations and negotiations.
Prior to his work with PILPG, Dr. Williams served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State as Attorney Adviser for the Office of European and Canadian Affairs and the Office of Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs. While in this position, Dr. Williams was counsel for the Serbian Sanctions Task Force and Counsel for the International Boundary Commission as well as representative for the Office of the Legal Adviser at the 45th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Dr. Williams was also a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cambridge.
Williams received his A.B. from the University of California, Davis
in 1987, his J.D. from Stanford Law School
in 1990, and his PhD from the University of Cambridge
, where he was a Fulbright Research Scholar.
Paul Williams has given over 150 public lectures and presentations covering topics such as the Yugoslav peace process, the Dayton peace negotiations, the Rambouillet/Paris negotiations, the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, European integration, the Nagorno-Karabagh crisis, the legal status of Taiwan, responsibility to protect, self-determination, earned sovereignty, humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, self-defense, human rights, the U.N. Human Rights Committee, war crimes, impunity, the International Criminal Court, state succession, international environmental dispute resolution, Central and East European geopolitics, the politics of economic transformation, the regulation of transboundary watercourses, the legal regime of nuclear power management, and California water law.
Venues have included: New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Palo Alto, San Antonio, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Prague, Warsaw, The Hague, St. Martin, Curacao, London, Cambridge, Paris, Juba, Kampala, Hargeisa, Nairobi, Colombo, Katmandu, Podgorica, Skopje, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Messina, Siracusa, Stockholm, Geneva, Budapest, Rome, Ankara, and Tallinn.
Dr. Williams has been interviewed over 500 times on matters of international law and policy by major print and broadcast media, including: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Newsweek Magazine, US News and World Report, Time Magazine, Associated Press, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, BBC, CNN, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and BBC The World.
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
, where he teaches in the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law
Washington College of Law
American University Washington College of Law is the law school of American University. It is located on Massachusetts Avenue in the Spring Valley neighborhood of northwest Washington. WCL is ranked 50th among law schools by US News and World Report...
. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group
Public International Law & Policy Group
The Public International Law & Policy Group is a non-profit organization, operating as a global pro bono law firm providing free legal assistance to developing states and sub-state entities involved in conflicts. To facilitate the utilization of this legal assistance, PILPG also provides policy...
(PILPG), a Non-Governmental Organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(NGO) which provides pro bono legal assistance to countries and governments involved in peace negotiations, drafting post-conflict constitutions, and prosecuting war criminals.
Career
As a leading authority in the field, Dr. Williams has assisted nearly two dozen states and sub-state entities in major international peace negotiations, legislation drafting and policy planning, and post-conflict constitution building through his work as President and Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy GroupPublic International Law & Policy Group
The Public International Law & Policy Group is a non-profit organization, operating as a global pro bono law firm providing free legal assistance to developing states and sub-state entities involved in conflicts. To facilitate the utilization of this legal assistance, PILPG also provides policy...
. Dr. Williams has served as a delegation in the Dayton Agreement
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
negotiations (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Rambouillet Agreement
Rambouillet Agreement
The Rambouillet Agreement is the name of a proposed peace agreement between then-Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic-Albanian majority population of Kosovo. It was drafted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and named for Chateau Rambouillet, where it was initially proposed...
and Paris negotiations (Kosovo), Ohrid Agreement
Ohrid Agreement
The Ohrid Framework Agreement was the peace deal signed by the government of the Republic of Macedonia and ethnic Albanian representatives on August 13, 2001...
negotiations (Macedonia), and Podgorica/Belgrade negotiations for Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
. He has also advised parties to the Key West negotiations for Nagorono-Karabakh, the Oslo and Geneva negotiations for the Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
, the Georgia-Abkhaz conflict negotiations, and the Somalia peace talks. In February 2005, Dr. Williams and the PILPG were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
by six governments and the Prosecutor of an International Criminal Tribunal for the work they have done to help in the prosecution of major war criminals, such as Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
, Charles Taylor (Liberia), and Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
.
Dr. Williams has advised over fifteen governments in Africa, Asia, and Europe including Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Bosnia, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Nagorono-Karabakh as well as the President of Macedonia, Foreign Minister of Montenegro, President of Estonia, and the Foreign Minister of East Timor. Advised topics include drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions, issues of state recognition, self-determination, and state succession, and border sea demarcations and negotiations.
Prior to his work with PILPG, Dr. Williams served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State as Attorney Adviser for the Office of European and Canadian Affairs and the Office of Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs. While in this position, Dr. Williams was counsel for the Serbian Sanctions Task Force and Counsel for the International Boundary Commission as well as representative for the Office of the Legal Adviser at the 45th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Dr. Williams was also a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cambridge.
Williams received his A.B. from the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
in 1987, his J.D. from Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
in 1990, and his PhD from the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, where he was a Fulbright Research Scholar.
Paul Williams has given over 150 public lectures and presentations covering topics such as the Yugoslav peace process, the Dayton peace negotiations, the Rambouillet/Paris negotiations, the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, European integration, the Nagorno-Karabagh crisis, the legal status of Taiwan, responsibility to protect, self-determination, earned sovereignty, humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, self-defense, human rights, the U.N. Human Rights Committee, war crimes, impunity, the International Criminal Court, state succession, international environmental dispute resolution, Central and East European geopolitics, the politics of economic transformation, the regulation of transboundary watercourses, the legal regime of nuclear power management, and California water law.
Venues have included: New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Palo Alto, San Antonio, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Prague, Warsaw, The Hague, St. Martin, Curacao, London, Cambridge, Paris, Juba, Kampala, Hargeisa, Nairobi, Colombo, Katmandu, Podgorica, Skopje, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Messina, Siracusa, Stockholm, Geneva, Budapest, Rome, Ankara, and Tallinn.
Dr. Williams has been interviewed over 500 times on matters of international law and policy by major print and broadcast media, including: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Newsweek Magazine, US News and World Report, Time Magazine, Associated Press, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, BBC, CNN, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and BBC The World.
Selected Accomplishments in International Law
- Advising the Libyan Transitional National Council on matters of international recognition, compliance with the laws of war and constitutional development.
- Advised the government of Nepal on drafting a new constitution.
- Advised the Government of Kenya on the preparation of legislation relating to the implementation of the new constitution on matters relating to land, devolution and justice.
- Advised civil society and rebel movements on the Darfur peace process, including serving as a member of the Darfuri delegation to the Doha peace talks.
- Advised the President and Vice President of Southern Sudan on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Accord, preparations for a referendum on independence in 2011, and state succession.
- Served as Co-Counsel to the Government of Southern Sudan on the Abyei Arbitration before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
- Advised the President and Prime Minister of Kosovo on the Vienna Final Status Talks.
- Advised the President and Prime Minister of Montenegro on questions of international recognition and state succession.
- Served as a legal advisor and member of the Kosovo delegation during the Rambouillet Peace Conference.
- Served as one of the Department of State’s primary counsel on legal matters relating to the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and accompanying matters of state succession.
Books
- Shaping Foreign Ploicy in Times of Crisis: The Role of International Law and the State Departmet Legal Adviser (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Co-authored with Michael P. Scharf.
- Peace with Justice? War Crimes and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002). Co-authored with Michael P. Scharf.
- Indictment at the Hague: The Milosevic Regime and Crimes of the Balkan Wars (New York University Press, 2002). Co-authored with Norman Cigar.
- International Law and the Resolution of Central and East European Transboundary Environmental Disputes (Macmillian/St. Martins Press, 2000). Awarded the Elizabeth Payne Cubberly Research Prize.
Selected Chapters, Book Reviews, and Law Articles
- "Drafting in Doha: An Assessment of the Darfur Peace Process and Ceasefire Agreements", in Monopoly of Force, The Nexus of DDR and SSR (2011). Co-authored with Matthew T. Simpson.
- "Is it true that there is no right of self-determination for Kosova?", in The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence (2006). Co-authored with Jennifer Ober.
- "Was the former 1999 NATO intervention an illegal war against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia?", in The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence (2006). Co-authored with Catherine Croft.
- "Earned Sovereignty: Bridging the Gap between Sovereignty and Self-Determination", Stanford Journal of International Law (2004). Co-authored with Francesca Jannotti Pecci.
- "Preemption in the 21st Century: What are the Legal Parameters?", ISLA Journal of International and Comparative Law (2004). Co-authored with Scott Lyons & Tali Neuwirth.
- "Earned Sovereignty: An Emerging Conflict Resolution Approach", ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law (2004). Co-authored with Karen Heymann.
- "The Role of Justice in the Former Yugoslavia: Antidote or Placebo for Coercive Appeasement", Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law (2003).
- "Resolving Sovereignty-Based Conflicts: The Emerging Approach of Earned Sovereignty", Denver Journal of International Law & Policy (2003) Co-authored with Michael P. Scharf & James R. Hooper.
- "Coercive Appeasement: The Flawed International Response to the Serbian Rogue Regime", New England Law Review (2002). Co-authored with Karina M. Waller.
- "Report of the Committee of Experts on Nation Rebuilding in Afghanistan", New England Law Review (2002). Co-authored with Michael P. Scharf.
- "State Succession to Debts and Assets: The Modern Law and Policy", Harvard International Law JournalHarvard International Law JournalThe Harvard International Law Journal is the oldest and most-cited academic journal of international law in the United States. It is run and edited by students at Harvard Law School, but relies on input from peer reviewers...
(2001). Co-authored with Jennifer Harris.