Ingrid Wuerth, who holds the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law at Vanderbilt Law School, is one of two international law scholars elected co-editors-in-chief of the prestigious American Journal of International Law.
Wuerth will serve as AJIL co-editor-in-chief with Monica Hakimi, who is the James V. Campbell Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Their four-year appointment will take effect in April 2022.Their election was announced by the executive council of the American Society of International Law following a unanimous vote of the AJIL board of editors, on which both Wuerth and Hakimi have previously served.
The AJIL is the world’s preeminent peer-reviewed international law journal, known for publishing cutting-edge scholarship, “agoras” involving multiple perspectives on current issues, book reviews, analyses of important international and foreign law decisions, and a record of official U.S. positions and actions known as the “Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law.”
In addition to its quarterly print edition, AJIL also publishes a quarterly online supplement, AJIL Unbound, which includes short, original essays discussing new ideas and developments in the field.
Wuerth is a leading scholar of foreign affairs, public international law and transnational litigation. She joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2007 and served as director of Vanderbilt’s International Legal Studies Program from 2009 to 2018, when she was appointed director of the Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program. She was named to the newly endowed Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law in 2015. She was appointed associate dean for research in 2020.
Wuerth is a member of the American Law Institute and was named as a Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. She also served on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Her numerous honors and fellowships include the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a Fulbright Senior Scholar award; the German Chancellor’s Fellowship; election to the German Society of International Law; and election to the Order of the Coif. Before entering the legal academy, she was a law clerk for Judge Jan E. DuBois in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Judge Jane Roth on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
“AJIL is an indispensable resource for everyone who works on international law and foreign affairs. It is a great honor to serve as co-editor-in-chief, and I am very fortunate to do so with the superbly qualified Monica Hakimi,” Wuerth said. “We plan to maintain the journal’s standing as the premier global publication on international law while also making it more diverse and more appealing to an even greater range of readers. Excellent scholarship in international law is critically important during a time when we face daunting global challenges—including the pandemic, climate change, global rivalries, threats to democracy and the management of new technologies.”
“I look forward to the contributions Ingrid will make as AJIL co-editor-in-chief and am excited about the collaboration between Vanderbilt’s International Legal Studies Program and AJIL, which will afford Vanderbilt students the opportunity to work on the journal and the cutting edge international legal issues with which it deals.” said Timothy Meyer, who directs Vanderbilt’s International Legal Studies Program.
The International Legal Studies Program prepares students to practice law in a global environment by combining substantive classroom exposure to cutting-edge topics in international law with practical experience in their application through the International Law Practice Lab and annual externships . The program’s core faculty of respected scholars have expertise in key areas of international law.
The American Journal of International Law is a publication of the American Society of International Law, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational membership organization. Founded in 1906 and chartered by Congress in 1950, ASIL’s mission is to foster the study of international law and to promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the basis of law and justice.