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Photograph of Professor Padideh Ala'i

Padideh Ala'i

Professor of Law
Acting Director, International Legal Studies Program

 

Office: Room 340
Phone: 202-274-4227
E-mail: palai@wcl.american.edu vCard

Padideh Ala’i is a Professor of Law at American University, Washington College of Law (WCL) in Washington D.C. where she specializes in areas of international trade law and development and comparative legal traditions. Specifically, she teaches the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and writes in the areas of history and free trade, international efforts to combat corruption as well as issues relating to trade and good governance. In 2005 and 2009 Professor Alai was the Acting Director of the International Legal Studies Program. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988 and was in private legal practice with the law firms of Jones Day and Reichler, Milton and Medel prior to joining the Faculty of the WCL in 1997. In private practice Professor Ala’i represented developing country governments, including Guyana, Nicaragua, Uganda, China and the Philippines in their negotiations with foreign investors, US Government and its federal agencies, as well as multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. She also represented multinational corporations in international business transaction and advised them on pending U.S. banking legislation. From 1992-1996, Professor Ala’i was part of the legal team representing the Government of Philippines in international litigation and arbitration against Westinghouse Corp. charging corruption and bribery by Westinghouse of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and defective construction of the Bataan nuclear power plant.

In 2003-2005 Professor Ala’i was the Co-Chair of the International Economic Law Group (IELG) of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). In that capacity, she organized a conference on the relationship of freedom of trade and peace. Professor Ala’i subsequently co-edited the book that was based on that conference as part of the ASIL Studies in Transnational Legal Policy entitled: Trade as Guarantor of Peace, Liberty and Security? Critical, Historical and Empirical Perspectives, Padideh Alai, Tomer Broude and Colin Picker eds., 37 Studies in Transnational Legal Policy (ASIL-2006). Her other publications include: “The Legacy of Geographical Morality and Colonialism: A Historical Assessment Current Crusade Against Corruption”, 33 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 4 (October 2000); “Free Trade or Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the WTO Appellate Body’s Shift to a more Balanced approach to Trade Liberalization”, 14 AU International Law Review 4 (1999); “Judicial Lobbying at the WTO: The Debate over the use of amicus curiae briefs and the U.S. Experience”, 24 Fordham Journal of International Law (Nov-Dec. 2000);“A Human Rights Critique of the WTO: Some Preliminary Observations”, 33 George Washington University International Law Review 3 & 4 (2001); and “Transparency and the Multilateral Trading System, in i>Trends in World Trade: Essays in Honor of Sylvia Ostry, edited by Alan Alexandroff (Carolina Academic Press 2007).

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