Jens Iverson

Guest Article

Jens Iverson (@JensIverson) is an assistant professor of international law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, (Law Faculty, Leiden University) a position he has held since 2014.

Prior to joining academia, he practiced at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and worked for Senior Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. (E.D.N.Y), Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza (U. of California, Hastings), Professor Ascanio Piomelli (U. of California, Hastings), the American Coalition for the ICC, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, The Hague Appeal for Peace, and the Cambodian Genocide Program. He has volunteered or assisted pro bono at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Alameda County Public Defender, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Cambodia), Karen Refugee Committee (Mae Sot, Thailand), General Assistance Advocacy Project (San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.), International Action Network for Small Arms, and le Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, (Port-au-Prince, Haiti).

Jens Iverson has published in wide-ranging areas, including international criminal law, environmental protection, international humanitarian law, history of international law, transitional justice, and human rights. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals in the U.S. and Europe and a number of edited volumes, and has edited volumes for Oxford University Press and a special edition of the Journal of World Investment & Trade. He has co-organized and presented in conferences in Australia, Haiti, India, Israel, Poland, The Netherlands, and the United States. He teaches International Criminal Law, Public International Law, and International Legal Practice, including concepts from criminal law, torts, property, professional responsibility, and contracts. His LL.M. advisees have won awards under the Facultaire Scriptieprijs. As coach of the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition team, the team won the international competition (2017).

He holds a Ph.D. from Leiden University, a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings, Cum Laude, (dual concentration in public interest law and international law) and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, and has additionally studied international law at the graduate level at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and international relations at New School University. As President and Co-founder of the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti he successfully co-petitioned Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of former Prime Minister of Haiti, resulting in the end of his illegal incarceration. He is a member of the California Bar (2007), Order of the Coif, and the Thurston Society, and was a Yale Summer Travelling Fellow and Class of 1956 Fellow. Amongst other awards, he received the Student Leadership Award for Outstanding Service to Hastings and the Legal Community (2007), the Public Interest Clearinghouse Pro Bono Publico Award (2007), the California Bar Foundation Superior and Exceptional Merit Scholar for Public Service (2005, 2006), the William Blackfield Memorial Scholar for Achievement, Leadership, and Professional Promise (2006), and the Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation Fellowship (2006). He served as Articles Editor for the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, Vice President of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Society, and President of the Hastings to Haiti Partnership.