Leila Sadat

James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law; Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC Prosecutor

Office

Anheuser-Busch Hall
Room 564

Faculty Links

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).


About Leila Sadat

Leila Nadya Sadat has served as Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor from 2012-2023 and was recently appointed as a U.S. expert to the OSCE Moscow Mechanism. She is currently a Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale Law School A renowned scholar, she is one of the world’s foremost authorities in the fields of public international law, international criminal, human rights, and foreign affairs. She has more than 170 publications to her name and regularly lectures and teaches abroad. She received Washington University’s Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Faculty Award in recognition of her leadership of the Crimes Against Initiative, a ground-breaking project she launched that wrote the world’s first treaty on crimes against humanity and continues to work for its adoption by the United Nations. She is the current Chair of the International Law Association (American Branch), and a member of the American Law Institute and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

www.leilasadat.com

Education

  • University of Paris I – Sorbonne Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (“D.E.A.”), Droit International Privé et Droit du Commerce International, July 1988
  • Columbia University School of LawMaster of Laws, May 1987 Jervey Fellow in Foreign Law
  • Tulane University School of Law Juris Doctor, May 1985, summa cum laude
  • Douglass College Bachelor of Arts, January 1980

Courses

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

SSRN Author’s Page

Books

  • The 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)