ASIL Judicial Advisory Board

The Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law comprises judges representing each of the thirteen U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. The director of the Federal Judicial Center serves ex-officio. The Advisory Board meets annually to share information on the international legal issues that come before their courts, to hear from Society experts about current developments in international law, and to provide advice to the Society on the development of educational resources and programs for the judiciary.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Judicial Advisory Board

The Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, Chair

Members


The Honorable David J. Barron
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

The Honorable William J. Nardini
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

The Honorable Anthony J. Scirica
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

The Honorable James A. Wynn
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

The Honorable Stephen Higginson
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

The Honorable Joshua P. Kolar
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
The Honorable Jane Kelly
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

The Honorable M. Margaret McKeown
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The Honorable Carolyn B. McHugh
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

The Honorable Adalberto J. Jordan
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

The Honorable Robert Wilkins
U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit

The Honorable Pauline Newman
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

The Honorable John S. Cooke, ex-officio
Director, Federal Judicial Center

In December 2020, Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer succeeded the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) as Chair of the Advisory Board. Justice Ginsburg had served in that role from 2006 until her death. She was preceded by Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who served as chair of the Advisory Board until her retirement from the Court.

Like each of his predecessors, Justice Breyer has enjoyed a close relationship with the Society and has given much thought to the intersection of American jurisprudence and international law. His views have been articulated in both his judicial opinions and his scholarly writings, most notably in his book, The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities (Knopf 2015).

Shortly after the book appeared, Justice Breyer delivered the keynote address at the Society's 2016 Annual Meeting, laying out his views on the role of international law in an increasingly interconnected world. In 2019, the Society presented him with its highest honor, the Manley O. Hudson Medal, for his distinguished contributions, as both jurist and scholar, to the field of international law.
Over the course of an extraordinary career, Stephen Breyer has been a path-breaking legal scholar, an accomplished and widely-respected government official, and a distinguished jurist, including service on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and, since 1994, as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. During his time on the bench, in both judicial and extra-judicial writings, he has been a leading and influential voice in debates over the appropriate use of international and foreign law in U.S. courts, the extraterritorial reach of domestic law, and the complex relationships between protecting civil liberties and ensuring national security. After completing his legal studies, Breyer clerked for Justice Arthur Goldberg during the 1964-65 term, and then served as special assistant to the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. In 1967, he joined the faculty of Harvard Law School, where he taught until 1994. While at Harvard, his scholarly focus was on the fields of antitrust and, later, administrative law. In the words of one leading scholar, Breyer's administrative law writings helped to transform the field and usher "administrative law into the modern era." In 1975, Breyer returned to Washington to spend a sabbatical year as special counsel to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he worked on international antitrust issues, among others. In 1980, Breyer was nominated by President Carter, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where he became Chief Judge in 1990. In 1994, President Clinton nominated, and the U.S. Senate confirmed, Breyer to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
After Justice Ginsburg's passing, the Society invited the seven living former Presidents of the Society whose terms of office coincided with Justice Ginsburg's tenure as chair of the Advisory Board to share their remembrances of her and their thoughts on her legacy. Their reflections, together with comments posted by other members and friends of the Society, are available at www.asil.org/RBG.