Paul Williams

executive director, Public International Law and Policy Group, American University

Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University. Professor Williams teaches at the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law, and also directs the joint JD/MA program in International Relations. Professor Williams is co-founder and Executive Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a non-profit group, which provides pro bono legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitutions drafting, and war crimes prosecutions. During the course of his legal practice, Professor Williams has assisted over a dozen states and governments in major international peace negotiations, and advised fifteen governments across Europe, Africa and Asia on issues of state recognition, self-determination, and state succession, drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions, and border and sea demarcation. Professor Williams is a leading scholar on peace negotiations and post-conflict constitutions and a sought-after international law and policy analyst. He has authored four books on topics of international human rights, international environmental law and international norms of justice, and over two dozen articles on a wide variety of public international law topics. Professor Williams is also a sought-after international law and policy analyst, and has been interviewed more than 250 times by major print and broadcast media. Previously, Professor Williams served in the Department of State's Office of the Legal Advisor for European and Canadian Affairs, as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge.