Professors Koh and Hathaway Selected for Foreign Relations Law Restatement Project

Two Yale Law School professors are among the experts who will complete the American Law Institute’s (ALI) restatement of U.S. foreign relations law as part of its ongoing work to clarify the law.

Sterling Professor of Law Harold Hongju Koh is one of two chairs of the project, Restatement of the Law Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States. Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law Oona A. Hathaway ’97 is one of the project Reporters.

Restatements are publications that present the common law of the United States in a format that includes the text of legal provisions, official commentary, illustrations, and notes. ALI’s Restatements of the Law are primarily addressed to courts. The publications aim to provide clear formulations of common law and its statutory elements and reflect the law as it presently stands or might appropriately be stated by a court. 

The new publication will cover topics not addressed in the previous volume on selected topics in treaties, jurisdiction, and sovereign immunity. The latest volume will also cover select topics that have emerged since publication of the Restatement Third. The Reporters will determine the scope of work for the project, and the Chairs will provide guidance to the Reporters. 

“ALI is delighted that this talented team of Chairs and Reporters, with its broad and deep knowledge and practical experience in foreign relations law, will lead this important project,” ALI Deputy Director Eleanor Barrett said. “The Institute, along with the Chairs and Reporters, will now begin to identify Advisers with diverse expertise for the project. We are thrilled to be bringing the Fourth Restatement to completion.” 

The project will be co-chaired by John B. Bellinger III of law firm Arnold & Porter. In addition to Hathaway, project Reporters are Curtis A. Bradley of University of Chicago Law School and William S. Dodge ’91 of the University of California, Davis School of Law.

By participating in the Institute’s work, distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to give back to a profession to which they are deeply dedicated, and to contribute to the public good. 

Koh is one of the country’s leading experts in public and private international law, national security law, and human rights. Koh first began teaching at Yale Law School in 1985 and served as its 15th Dean from 2004 until 2009. Koh has served four U.S. presidents as Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice from 1983 to 1985, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor from 1998 to 2001, Legal Adviser of the Department of State from 2009 to 2013, and Senior Advisor in the Office of the Legal Adviser in 2021.

Hathaway, in addition to her primary appointment, is a Professor of International Law and Area Studies at the Yale University MacMillan Center, Professor of the Yale University Department of Political Science, and Director of the Yale Law School Center for Global Legal Challenges. She has been a member of the Advisory Committee on International Law for the Legal Adviser at the United States Department of State since 2005. 

The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.