Leila Sadat

James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law

Office

Anheuser-Busch Hall
Room 564

Featured Scholarship

  • Mark W. Janis, John E. Noyes & Leila Nadya Sadat. International Law: Cases and Commentary (7th ed. 2025).

  • Leila Nadya Sadat, The Conferred Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, 99 Notre Dame L. Rev. 549 (2024).

  • Leila N. Sadat, The Long Arc of Justice: Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity, Wash. U. Glob. Stud. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025).

Leila Sadat

About Leila Sadat

Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University and is one of the world’s leading scholars of international law and international criminal justice. She has devoted her career to advancing accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and has advised governments, international institutions, and civil society organizations around the world. Her scholarship and leadership have shaped global conversations about justice, accountability, and the future of international law, particularly as regards her work leading the campaign for a new global treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. In addition to her academic work, she is involved in the practice of international law and global justice, serving as special advisor on crimes against humanity to the ICC Prosecutor from 2013-2023 and as a commissioner on the US Commission for International Religious Freedom from 2001-2003. She recently served as a rostered expert with the OECD Moscow Mechanism and as the Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute from 2007-2020. She visited at Yale Law School from 2021 until 2024 and will be teaching at UCLA Law School in the 2027 January term. She is a prolific and award-winning scholar, with more than 175 publications to her name, and is currently working on a new book on her initiative to develop a new global treaty on crimes against humanity. In addition to her other awards, in  2025 she received the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law, and in 2026 received the Inaugural Norman Cousins Global Governance Award from Citizens for Global Solutions and the Charles Siegel Distinguished Service Award from the International Law Association (American Branch).

Education

  • University of Paris I – Sorbonne Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (“D.E.A.”), Droit International Privé et Droit du Commerce International
  • Columbia University School of LawMaster of Laws, Jervey Fellow in Foreign Law
  • Tulane University School of Law Juris Doctor, summa cum laude
  • Douglass College Bachelor of Arts

Courses

  • International law
  • International human rights
  • International criminal law
  • Seminars in international criminal law
  • International business transactions
  • Criminal law
  • Space law

Areas of Expertise

  • Public International Law
  • International Criminal Law
  • Human Rights Law
  • The International Criminal Court
  • U.S. Foreign Affairs Law
  • Terrorism
  • Transnational Crime

Scholarship

Books

  • INTERNATIONAL LAW: CASES AND COMMENTARY (7th ed., West Academic, 2025) (with Mark Weston Janis and John E. Noyes)
  • INTERNATIONAL LAW: CASES AND COMMENTARY (6th ed., West 2020) (with Mark Weston Janis & John E. Noyes)
  • International Criminal Court in a Nutshell (with Patrick Keenan & Milena Sterio)(West Academic, 2024)
  • INTERNATIONAL LAW: CASES AND COMMENTARY (6th ed., West Academic, 2020) (with Mark Weston Janis and John E. Noyes)
  • SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE UNLAWFUL USE OF FORCE (Leila Nadya Sadat, ed., Cambridge, 2018)
  • THE FOUNDERS (David M. Crane, Leila Nadya Sadat and Michael P. Scharf, eds, Cambridge, 2018)
  • FORGING A CONVENTION FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY (2d ed. Leila Nadya Sadat, ed., Cambridge 2013)
  • INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (4th ed., Carolina, 2013) (with Bassiouni, Paust, et al.)
  • THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF M. CHERIF BASSIOUNI (Leila N. Sadat, Michael P. Scharf, eds., Martinus Nihof 2008)
  • THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: JUSTICE FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM (Transnational, 2002)
  • MODEL DRAFT STATUTE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT BASED ON THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE’S TEXT TO THE DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE, ROME, JUNE 15-JULY 17, 1998, 13TER NOUVELLES ÉTUDES PÉNALES (Leila Sadat Wexler, special ed. 1998)

Selected Articles and Essays

Activity & Affiliations

  • Expert, OSCE Moscow Mechanism
  • Fellow, Schell Center for Human Rights, Yale Law School, Yale Law School
  • Former Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute (2007–2020)
  • Chair, Washington University Faculty Senate Council (2019-2020)
  • International Criminal Court, Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to the Chief Prosecutor (2012-2023)
  • International Law Association (American Branch), President (2018-2022), Chair (2022-present)
  • U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Commissioner (2001-2003)
  • Council on Foreign Relations (2012-present)
  • American Law Institute (2003-present)
  • American Society of International Law, Counselor
  • International Law Students Association (Chairwoman, 2008-2010)

Honors & Awards

  • Outstanding Article of the Year Award (2034), The Conferred Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (2023), International Association of Penal Law (American Branch)
  • Cox Center International Law Center Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice, Case Western Reserve University School of Law (October 25, 2023)
  • Festschrift in Honor of Professor Leila Nadya Sadat: Bringing the World to WashULaw and WashULaw to the World, 21 Wash. Univ. Global Stud. L. Rev. 1-153 (2022)YWCA Women’s Leadership Academy Award (December 15, 2017)
  • Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Faculty Award, Washington University (November 3, 2017)
  • Honorary Doctor of Laws, Northwestern University (June 2017)
  • International Women’s Day Award, Washington University School of Law, Women’s Law Caucus, March 6, 2017
  • Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair, Paris France (Spring 2011)
  • Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow, Spring 1999; 2003-2004; 2014-2015
  • Outstanding Article of the Year Award (2014), Crimes Against Humanity in the Modern Age (2014), International Association of Penal Law (American Branch)
  • Outstanding Book of the Year Award (2011), FORGING A CONVENTION FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, International Association of Penal Law (American Branch)
  • Outstanding Article of the Year Award (2010), The Nuremberg Paradox, International Association of Penal Law (American Branch)
  • Outstanding Article of the Year Award (2006), Exile, Amnesty and International Law, International Association of Penal Law (American Branch)
  • Outstanding Book of the Year (2003), THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, International Association of Penal Law (American)