Biography
Lea Brilmayer is the Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of International Law at
Yale Law School. In addition to teaching Contracts to first-year
students, she also teaches Conflict of Laws and International Courts
and Tribunals, as well as seminars on the laws of war and on African
current affairs. Her degrees include a B.A. in mathematics and a J.D. from
the University of California at Berkeley, as well as an LL.M. from
Columbia Law School. Brilmayer has taught at a number of different law
schools as either a professor or visiting professor, including the
University of Texas, the University of Chicago, the University of
Michigan, Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, and the New York
University School of Law (where she led a weekly seminar on
International Jurisprudence.) She is a member of the Texas and Supreme
Court bars. She has given numerous endowed lectures at other American
law schools and has also taught twice at the summer session of the
Hague Academy of International Law. During her first decade of
teaching, her writing interests mainly concerned conflict of laws (in
particular, personal jurisdiction and choice of law); federal
jurisdiction; and jurisprudence. Her conflict of laws writings have
included one theoretical book on the subject and a leading casebook (in
the more recent editions, co-authored with Jack Goldsmith). Together
with a group of Yale student contributors, she published An Introduction to Jurisdiction in the American Federal System.
Her writings on the conflict of laws have resulted in her being asked
on a number of occasions to testify before Congressional committees,
most recently on the Full Faith and Credit implications of same sex
marriage. More recently, her interests have gradually turned to
international law and international relations, and she is frequently
cited for her academic writings about nationalism and the international
legal status of secessionist movements. Her research in international
jurisprudence has also led to two books, Justifying International Acts and American Hegemony: Political Morality in a One-Superpower World.
In addition to her academic interests, Brilmayer carries on an active
life in interstate and international adjudication. In addition to
contributing to amicus briefs, she has served as counsel of record
before the United States Supreme Court and has been an expert
consultant on many lower and intermediate appellate court cases. For
the last decade she has served as lead counsel in several international
public (state-to-state) arbitrations dealing with island sovereignty,
maritime delimitation, land boundaries, and mass claims for violations
of the laws of war










