Paul Williams
Rebecca I. Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations
Director of the JD/MA Dual Degree Program
Office: Room 400
Phone: 202-274-4271
E-mail: pwilliams@wcl.american.edu
Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University. Professor Williams teaches at the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law, and also directs the joint JD/MA program in International Relations. Professor Williams is co-founder and Executive Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a non-profit group, which provides pro bono legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitutions drafting, and war crimes prosecutions.
During the course of his legal practice, Professor Williams has assisted over a dozen states and governments in major international peace negotiations, and advised fifteen governments across Europe, Africa and Asia on issues of state recognition, self-determination, and state succession, drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions, and border and sea demarcation. Professor Williams is a leading scholar on peace negotiations and post-conflict constitutions and a sought-after international law and policy analyst. He has authored four books on topics of international human rights, international environmental law and international norms of justice, and over two dozen articles on a wide variety of public international law topics. Professor Williams is also a sought-after international law and policy analyst, and has been interviewed more than 250 times by major print and broadcast media.
Previously, Professor Williams served in the Department of State's Office of the Legal Advisor for European and Canadian Affairs, as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge.
Currently Teaching
Areas of Specialization
- Peace Negotiations
- Post-Conflict Constitutions
- Public International Law
Degrees & Universities
- Ph.D., University of Cambridge 1998
- J.D., Stanford Law School 1990
- A.B., University of California at Davis 1987
Selected Publications
- Paul Williams & Michael Scharf, Peace with Justice? War Crimes and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (Rowan & Littlefield 2002).
- Paul Williams & Norman Cigar, Indictment at the Hague: The Milosevic Regime & Crimes of the Balken Wars (N.Y.U. Press May 2002).
- Paul Williams, International Law and the Resolution of Central and East European Transboundary Environmental Disputes (Macmillian/St. Martin's Press Oct. 2000).
- Paul Williams, The Norm of Justice and the Negotiation of the Rambouillet/Paris Peace Accords, 13 Leiden J. Intl. L. 207 (May 2000).
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More Publications...
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Books
- Paul Williams, Janusz Bugajski & R. Bruce Hitchner, Achieving a Final Status Settlement for Kosovo (Ctr. Strategic & Intl. Stud. 2003).
- Paul Williams & James Hooper, Simulating Kosovo: Lessons for Final Status Negotiations (U.S. Inst. for Peace Nov. 2002).
- Paul Williams, Treatment of Detainees: Examination of Issues Relevant to Detention by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (Henry Dunant Inst. 1990).
- Paul Williams & Jennifer Ober, Is It True That There is No Right of Self-Determination for Kosova?, in The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence (Anna Di Lellio, ed., Anthem Press 2006).
- Paul Williams & Catherine Croft, Was the Former 1999 NATO Intervention an Illegal War Against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia?, in The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence (Anna Di Lellio, ed., Anthem Press 2006).
Other Publications
- Paul Williams & Yoonie Kim, Book Review: Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Case of the Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR, 99 Am. J. Intl. L. 734 (July 2005).
- Paul Williams & Katrina M. Waller, Coercive Appeasement: The Flawed International Response to the Serbian Rogue Regime, 36 New Eng. L. Rev. 825 (2002).
- Paul Williams, The Role of Justice in Peace Negotiations, in Post Conflict Justice (M. Cherif Bassiouni, ed., Transnatl. Pub. 2002).
- Paul Williams & Jennifer Harris, State Succession to Debts and Assets: The Modern Law and Policy, 42 Harv. Intl. L. J. 355 (2001).
- Paul Williams & M. Schraf, Legal Basis for NATO Military Action Taken Against Serbia/Montenegro, 5 Intl. Peacekeeping __ (Winter 1999).
- Paul Williams & Ramzi Nemo, Constitutionalizing Globalization: The Postmodern Revival of Confederal Arrangements, 93 Am. J. Intl. L. 561 (1999).
- Paul Williams, The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement: Evolving the Principle of Self-Determination, 12 Leiden J. Intl. L. 155 (1999).
- Paul Williams, Legal Issues, in A Global Agenda: Issues Before the 53rd General Assembly of the United Nations (Tessitore & Woolfson, eds., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 1998).
- Paul Williams, UN Mandates: The Letter of the Law, in With No Peace to Keep: United Nations Peacekeeping and the War in the Former Yugoslavia (Grainpress, Ltd. Dec. 1995).
- Paul Williams, Can International Legal Principals Promote the Resolution of Central and East European Transboundary Environmental Disputes?, 7 Geo. Intl. Envtl. L. Rev. 421 (1995).
- Paul Williams, The Prospects for Improved Central and East European Environmental Dispute Resolution, Proceedings, Conference on Environment in Central Europe: Problems of Transition (Aug. 1994).
- Paul Williams, International Environmental Dispute Resolution: The Dispute Between Slovakia and Hungary Concerning Construction of the Gabakovo and Nagymaros Dams, 19 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 1 (1994).
- Paul Williams, State Succession and the International Financial Institutions: Political Criteria or Sound Management?, 43 Intl. Comp. L. Q. 776 (1994).
- Paul Williams & Steve McHugh, Water Marketing and Instream Flows: the Next Step in Protecting California's Instream Values, 9 Stan. Envtl. L.J 132 (1990).
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Selected Media Appearances