Steven R. Ratner, the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, came to Michigan Law in 2004 from the University of Texas School of Law. His teaching and research focus on public international law and a range of disputes involving states, non-state armed groups, individuals, and corporations, including state and corporate duties regarding foreign investment, territorial conflicts, counter-terrorism strategies, ethnic conflict, and accountability for human rights violations.

He also is interested in the intersection of international law and moral philosophy and other theoretical issues. A member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law from 1998 to 2008, he began his legal career as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department. In 1998–1999, he was appointed by the UN secretary-general to a three-person group of experts to consider options for bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice; and in 2010–2011, he was a member of the UN's three-person Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which advised the UN Secretary-General on human rights violations related to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. He also has served in the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Since 2009, he has been a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Law. He also is a counsellor of the American Society of International Law and a member of the American Law Institute. He also has served as an expert on international investment law in various arbitrations. He established and directs the Law School's externship program in Geneva. 

Related Information

Areas of Interest

Education

  • Princeton University, AB

  • Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales, MA, (diplôme)

  • Yale University, JD

Recent Courses

Personal Links

Featured Scholarship

  • International and Comparative Law
"International Law Rules on Treaty Interpretation"
The Law and Practice of the Northern Ireland Protocol
  • International and Comparative Law
Introduction to Talking International Law: Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom
Talking International Law: Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom
  • International and Comparative Law
"Towards Greater Investor Accountability: Indirect Actions, Direct Actions by States and Direct Actions by Individuals"
Journal of International Dispute Settlement
  • International and Comparative Law
"Toward a Theory of International Legal Argumentation"
Talking International Law: Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom
See All Scholarship

Activities

February 26, 2021

University of Michigan Federalist Society talk on Foreign Policy for a Bankrupt Republic, commentator, Ann Arbor, MI.

October 20, 2020

University of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict workshop to prepare the Oxford Statement on International Law Protections Against Foreign Electoral Interference through Digital Means, invited expert, virtual from Oxford, UK.

October 16, 2020

Permanent Missions of Japan and the United States to the United Nations in Geneva Brainstorming Session on Future Directions for a Treaty on Business and Human Rights, panelist, virtual from Geneva, Switzerland.

September 16, 2020

University of Michigan Donia Human Rights Center Panel on Racism and Race Relations in the United States: What Value for an International Human Rights Perspective?, moderator, virtual from Ann Arbor, MI.

August 24, 2020

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul International Seminar on Business and Human Rights: Hermeneutics for a Transnational World, Opening Lecture, "Business and Human Rights: Seizing the Opportunity," virtual from Porto Alegre, Brazil.

July 26, 2020

American Society of International Law Annual Meeting panel on International Law and Theories of Global Justice, moderator, virtual from Washington, D.C..

February 28, 2020

American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting panel on the Philosophy of International Law, moderator and commentator on three papers, Chicago, IL.

February 6, 2020

University of Michigan National Security Law Society Panel on The Deterioration of Iran-U.S. Relations and International Law, presenter, Ann Arbor, MI.

December 2019

Spoke at the opening panel at the Launch Symposium of The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration at the Peace Palace in The Hague. The launch completes a two-year drafting process by a 14-person multinational, multi-stakeholder drafting team on which Ratner served.

May 2019

Presented "The Thin Justice of International Economic Law" at the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi Public Seminar, Milan, Italy.

May 2019

Presented "The Aggravating Duty of Non-Aggravation in International Law" at the Queen's University Belfast Guest Lecture, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

April 2019

Presented "Arbitrating Business and Human Rights Disputes: A Way Forward" at the Hamad bin Khalifa School of Law, Doha, Qatar.

April 2019

Delivered the paper, "Global Investment Rules as a Site for Moral Inquiry," at the European Consortium for Political Research's Joint Session Workshop, Mons, Belgium.

March 2019

Elected a counsellor of the American Society of International Law.

February 2019

Panelist and presenter at the Academic Forum on Investor-State Dispute Settlement's Workshop on Reforming International Investment Arbitration, Oslo, Norway.

January 2019

Presented "The Moral Implications of International Investment Law at the Pluricourts Conference on Reforms of International Investment Arbitration: Philosophical Perspectives," Oslo, Norway.

October 2018

Presented "The Duty of Non-Aggravation in International Law" at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University College of Law and Public Policy Colloquium on The Order on Provisional Measures of the International Court of Justice in the Case of Qatar v. UAE of 23 July 2018, Doha, Qatar.

October 2018

Attended the second meeting of the drafting team for The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration.

September 2018

Co-presented "India's Decriminalization of Homosexuality: What Next?" at the University of Michigan Law School.

September 2018

Presented "International Investment Law as a Site for Global (In-)Justice" at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston.

April 2018

Presented "International Investment Law and Domestic Investment Rules: Tracing The Connections" at the Comparative and International Investment Law: Prospects for Reform Workshop, Hamad Bin Khalifa University College of Law and Public Policy, Doha, Qatar.

April 2018

Invited expert, European Commission brainstorming meeting on the design of a multilateral investment court, Washington, D.C.