At the core of Duke Law School's excellence is its faculty, scholars of international renown who bring real-world experience and academic expertise to the classroom and to the national and international stages of legal deliberation. Respected scholars and practitioners of national and international stature, they are also exceptional teachers committed to developing their students intellectually and professionally. Faculty and students collaborate on research, law reform advocacy, campus symposia, and pro bono activities. Faculty members help students obtain the national and international positions they truly desire in law, business, government and public interest, academia, and as judicial clerks.

In recent years, the Law School has completed key faculty hires in intellectual property law and international and comparative law, areas of significant focus for Duke. Professor James Boyle is a cyberspace law expert whose book, Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society, was one of the first to set issues raised by the growth and influence of the Internet in the context of traditional notions of property and authorship. Professor Jerome Reichman is an expert in international intellectual property and a key player in international trade negotiations, often through the World Trade Organization (WTO). Together with Professor David Lange, a 31-year veteran of the Law School faculty whose focus is on entertainment and telecommunications law, and a set of adjunct professors who are experts in patent law, telecommunications, and other kinds of legal issues raised by emerging technologies, our intellectual property faculty is now one of the most highly regarded in the country.

In the international arena, recently-appointed Professors Ralf Michaels, a comparative and conflict of law specialist, and Joost Pauwelyn, an international trade law expert who has written extensively about the WTO, complement Professor Michael Byers, a rising star in the public international law field, to provide Duke with perhaps the best and most promising group of young academics in international and comparative law of any other law school.

In addition, Professor Donald Horowitz, who joined the Duke Law faculty in 1981, is a world-renowned expert on ethnic conflict who has consulted widely on the problems of divided societies and on policies to reduce tension in such locations as Russia, Romania, Nigeria, Tatarstan, Fiji and Northern Ireland. Professor Madeline Morris, director of the Duke/Geneva Institute in Transnational Law and the Law School's International Legal Clinic, has served as Advisor on Justice to the President of Rwanda, provided training to judicial and prosecutorial personnel in the former Yugoslavia, and provided consultation to the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense.

In the area of constitutional law, Duke boasts a team of experienced and widely recognized scholar-practitioners — including two who have appeared on the short list for appointment to the United States Supreme Court: Professors Walter Dellinger and William Van Alstyne. A first-amendment specialist who has written extensively about all areas of U.S. constitutional law, Professor Van Alstyne is widely published and quoted in professional journals and judicial opinions, including those of the high Court, before whom he has appeared both as counsel and amicus curiae. Professor Dellinger served the Clinton Administration as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office, as head of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel and as acting Solicitor General. Professors Christopher Schroeder and Jeff Powell also served in the Clinton Administration, one as acting assistant attorney general and the other as principal deputy solicitor general in the Department of Justice.

And the list goes on. Professors Robert Mosteller and James Coleman are well-known death penalty experts who direct the Law School's Death Penalty Clinic. Professor Coleman led the successful effort in the American Bar Association to endorse a death penalty moratorium. Professor James Cox, a 23-year veteran of the Law School faculty, is one of the world's pre-eminent authorities on corporate and securities law, and a frequent commentator on issues surrounding corporate misconduct and corruption. Professor Scott Silliman, executive director of the Duke Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, is widely sought throughout the country as a guest lecturer on the law of war and has appeared in the major media outlets to discuss issues involving military law and national security in the wake of September 11th. Professor Sara Sun Beale, an expert in federal criminal law, has written about the accuracy of the public's perception of crime rates in the United States and its influence on public policy. Professor Neil Vidmar is a pre-eminent authority on the psychology of juries, and has consulted on jury selections in a number of prominent national and international trials.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the Duke Law faculty and the work they are doing nationally and internationally. Please visit the Faculty pages of the Duke Law website to learn more about our faculty and the breadth and depth of their scholarship and activity.