Franklyn Jeans, franklyn.jeans@asu.edu
(480) 727-7859
June 24, 2005

International legal scholar brings expertise to College of Law

Kenneth W. Abbott, a world-renowned scholar specializing in international organizations and governance, international trade and business, and international public health and environmental protection, will join the faculty of ASU’s College of Law Jan. 1 as a professor of law and Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar.

He also will join the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ new School of Global Studies.

“Professor Abbott is one of the most influential scholars in the country working in international relations and international law,” says Patricia D. White, dean of the College of Law. “He is called upon to lecture around the world. He will bring a wealth of international expertise to the College of Law, ASU and the state of Arizona.”

David Jacobson, director of the School of Global Studies, hailed Abbott’s arrival as “a coup for ASU.”

“Not only is he a leading scholar of international law, he was the first to apply theories of international relations to the study of legal arrangements,” Jacobson says. “He adds his considerable reputation and experience to a stellar faculty in the School of Global Studies . He also will play a critical role in advancing transdisciplinary linkages between the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law.”

Abbott is the Elizabeth Froehling Horner Professor of Law and Commerce at the Northwestern University School of Law. He has been a member of the Northwestern faculty since 1978. He also teaches in Northwestern’s Department of Political Science, and is the director of its law school’s Graduate and International Programs and co-director of its International Law Colloquium.

Jeans, with the College of Law, can be reached at (480) 727-7859 or (franklyn.jeans@asu.edu).