The National University of Singapore has announced that Professor Julian Arato will serve as its Visiting Sat Pal Khattar Professor in March.
The appointment, running March 2–13, will include co-teaching a class and delivering two public lectures, titled “Trade Unilateralism: From American Exceptionalism to America First” and “The Corporation in International Law.”
The first lecture will look at the US’s role in international trade. “Most portray the rise of the second Trump administration’s approach to trade as a complete about-face in our trade policy,” Arato said. “And while I agree that red lines have been crossed, there are a lot of things that I think are ugly about our trade policy that are really more continuities than breaks. My instinct is that we need to understand the current moment in that broader context.”
The second lecture will focus on corporations. “Corporations in international law is an academic question that has been of interest to me for 10 years,” Arato said. “I’m at the point where I’ve thought through the nature of corporate personality, international law, and what should be done about it. So this is sort of a capstone of a decade of research.”
The visiting professorship at the National University of Singapore “is an incredible honor,” Arato said. “It’s among the most important academic institutions in Asia, with a long and storied focus on matters of international commerce.”
At Michigan Law, Arato is director of the Program on Law and the Global Economy, faculty director of the Center for International and Comparative Law, and director of the SJD Program. His research focuses on public international law, international investment law and arbitration, international trade, contracts, corporations, and legal theory.
Arato is an author of International Law: Cases and Materials, 8th ed. (2025), and International Trade Law Through the Cases, 2025 ed. His article “The Private Law Critique of International Investment Law” won the 2019 Francis Deák Prize for best article by a younger author published in the American Journal of International Law, as well as the inaugural ICCA–Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize.
He is a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, a member of the executive board of the European Journal of International Law, and an editor of the EJIL:Talk! blog. He is active in the governance of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), having recently been nominated to serve as a vice president of the group. He has also served as co-chair of the 2024 ASIL Annual Meeting, as a member of the executive council, and as co-chair of the International Economic Law Interest Group and the International Organizations Interest Group.