Harold Hongju Koh
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| Harold Hongju Koh | |
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| Born | December 8, 1954 Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Nationality | United States |
| Ethnicity | Korean American |
| Fields | Constitutional law Civil Procedure |
| Institutions | Yale Law School |
| Alma mater | Harvard Law School Magdalen College, Oxford Harvard University |
Harold Hongju Koh (Hangul: 고홍주; born December 8, 1954, Boston, MA, United States) is an American lawyer, legal scholar, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Clinton Administration, and Dean of the Yale Law School. The Obama administration announced March 23, 2009 that Koh will return to the State Department as Legal Adviser of the Department of State.[1] Dean Koh's day-to-day duties at Yale Law School are currently being assumed by Acting Dean Kate Stith.[2]
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[edit] Biography
A Korean-American native of Boston, he graduated in 1971 from the Hopkins School in New Haven, graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard, then received a Marshall Scholarship to study at Magdalen College, Oxford University, and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1980. He was a law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court, and has held a variety of positions in private practice, government service, and academia, including at the Hague Academy of International Law. He is the brother of former Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner and United States Assistant Secretary for Health Nominee Howard Kyongju Koh.
In the 1980's Koh worked as an adviser to the Office of Legal Counsel in the Reagan Justice Department.[3]
He joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1985, and is now the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law.[4]
He was nominated by President Clinton to become Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on September 10, 1998 and confirmed unanimously by the Senate on October 21, 1998.
Koh is the author of a number of books, including The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair (Yale University Press,1990); Transnational Legal Problems (with Harry Steiner and Detlev Vagts, Foundation Press, 1994); and Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights (with Ronald C. Slye, Yale University Press, 1999). He has also written over 175 law review articles and legal editorials.[5]
Koh is a prominent advocate of human rights and civil rights, and has argued and written briefs on a wide number of cases before U.S. appellate courts. He received the Human Rights Award of the Cuban-American Bar Association in 1994, the Justice in Action Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1993, and the Human Rights Award of the American Immigration Lawyers' Association in 1992 for his work. He is also a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.[6]
Koh has testified before the U.S. Congress more than a dozen times. In January 2005, Dean Koh testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the appointment of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general of the United States; Dean Koh criticized Gonzales' positions on the illegality of torture and the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to detainees.[7] Koh has drawn criticism from conservatives as a "highly partisan Democrat" and as promoting political polarization at Yale Law School in a fashion avoided by his predecessors as dean, Anthony Kronman and Guido Calabresi, though many observers might rebut these claims by pointing to the hiring of a number of prominent conservatives (including Jon Macey, whom he made Deputy Dean, and Thomas Merrill) to the faculty during his deanship.[8][9]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/28203
- ^ http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/HKoh.htm
- ^ http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/2508.htm
- ^ http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/kohcurriculumvitae.htm
- ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2215142/pagenum/2
- ^ http://www.constitutionproject.org/libertyandsecurity/members.cfm?categoryId=3
- ^ http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/KohTestimony.pdf
- ^ http://www.abovethelaw.com/2006/12/attention_concerned_alumni_of.php
- ^ http://volokh.com/posts/1175739296.shtml
[edit] External links
- Faculty profile at Yale Law
- Faculty C.V. at Yale Law
- Interview
- The Bright Lights of Freedom, Koh's radio essay on freedom and democracy that was broadcast on NPR
- Conceptions of the Court
- Criticism of Koh's Politics
- Koh and Linda Greenhouse
- Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on the conservative blogosphere's "character assassination" of Koh
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Anthony T. Kronman |
Dean of Yale Law School 2004 – 2009 |
Succeeded by Kate Stith |
