Robert Kogod Goldman is Professor of Law and Louis C. James Scholar at American University Washington College of Law. He is also Faculty Director of the War Crimes Research Office, Co-Chair of the Academy of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and Co-Director of WCL’s Center For Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. A member of WCL’s faculty since 1971, Professor Goldman was the law school’s Acting Dean from 1979-1980. He was instrumental in founding and was the first Faculty Director of WCL’s International Legal Studies Program. He practiced international trade law at Arnold & Porter from 1974-1976.

Professor Goldman teaches, practices and writes in the areas of International Law, Human Rights Law, Terrorism, and International Humanitarian Law. He is the author, inter alia, of The Protection of Human Rights in The Americas: Past Present and Future (1972); co-author, Needless Deaths in The Gulf War: Civilian Casualties During The Air Campaign and Violations of The Laws of War (1991): International Humanitarian Law: Americas Watch’s Experience in Monitoring Internal Armed Conflicts (1993); co-author, The International Dimension of Human Rights: A Guide For Application in Domestic Law (2001); co-author, Unprivileged Combatants and The Hostilities In Afghanistan: Their Status and Rights Under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law (2002); and History and Action: The Inter-American Human Rights System and The Role of The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2009).

In 1993, Professor Goldman chaired the Commission of International Jurists on the Administration of Justice in Peru, jointly tasked by the US and Peruvian governments to evaluate Peru’s anti-terrorist legislation. From 1994-1996, he helped develop the normative framework for internally displaced persons and was the principal author of The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. He served two terms as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1996 to 2004, and was that body’s president in 1999-2000. From July 2004 to August 2005, Professor Goldman was the former UN Human Rights Commission’s Independent Expert on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. In 2008, he was elected a Commissioner and member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). He served three successive terms as the ICJ’s President from 2019-2024.

Professor Goldman also has served on the boards of numerous US and foreign human rights organizations, including the Advisory Boards of Americas Watch, Helsinki Watch and Middle East Watch, the Washington Office on Latin America and the International Human Rights Law Group.