Professor Elizabeth F. Defeis has lectured internationally on human rights, rule of
law, democracy and constitution building, electoral reform and standards for independence
of the judiciary. Her expertise has been requested by governments and intergovernmental
institutions including the OSCE and the United Nations. She has lectured in countries
ranging from Azerbaijan, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, Guinea Bissau, Nepal,
Italy, Egypt and Germany. She has also participated in fact finding missions in Gaza
and the West Bank, Armenia and Moldova and in numerous international conferences including
the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing, China and the U.N. Conference on Human Rights
in Vienna, Austria. She is an Advisor to The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy
See to the United Nations.
Professor Defeis teaches in the areas of International Law, International Human Rights,
International Criminal Law, European Union Law and United States Constitutional Law.
She was a visiting Professor of Law at the University of Milan and held the Distinguished
Chair at the University of Naples, Italy. She was also a visiting Professor at St.
Louis University, School of Law, St. John's University School of Law and Temple University
School of Law. Through Fulbright Scholarships and the Speakers Program of the U.S.
State Department she has lectured at various universities including those in Russia,
Iran, India, Bangladesh, Italy, Egypt, Kenya and Armenia. She is the recipient of
numerous awards including a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship
and an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from St. John's University.
Professor Defeis has written extensively in the areas of International Law, Human
Rights, Gender Equality, European Union Law and U.S. Constitutional Law. She is also
the Producer/Host of television programs including the 15 part video course on Women
and the Law, Human Rights and New Jersey, the 3 part series The Italians and the Creating
of America and the 10 part International Law Television Course which has been translated
into Chinese, Spanish and Russian and is in distribution in more than 25 countries.
Professor Defeis currently serves on the Council of International Affairs and the
Committee on Foreign and Comparative Law for the Association of the Bar of the City
of New York and previously Chaired the International Law Committee and the Committee
on the United Nations for the Association. She is active in numerous professional
associations including the ABA, the New York and New Jersey State Bar Associations,
the International Association of Jurists Italy/U.S.A. and the American Law Institute.
She is a member of the Board of SUNSGLOW and is a director of the Albert Einstein
Institution, which explores alternatives to violence in the international context.
Professor Defeis was appointed by Governor Thomas Kean to chair the Urban Development
Corporation for the State of New Jersey.
Professor Defeis received her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law and her
LL.M. from New York University, School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty of Seton
Hall Law School, Prof. Defeis was selected for the Honors Program with the United
States Department of Justice and was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern
District of New York. She was also an Associate with the Law Firm of Carter, Ledyard,
Milburn in New York specializing in complex litigation and was a Reginald Heber Smith
Fellow at Bedford Stuyvesant Legal Services in Brooklyn, N.Y. focusing on test case
litigation. Professor Defeis joined the faculty of Seton Hall Law School in 1971 and
was Dean from 1983 to 1988.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
LAW REVIEW ARTICLES
Human Rights, The European Union, and the Treaty Route: From Maastricht to Lisbon,
35 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1207
(2012)
Reflections of Women in Legal Education: Stories from Four Decades of Section Chairs,
80 UMKC L. R. 679
(2012)
(Women in Legal Education Section)
The Responsibility to Protect and International Justice,
10 Hofstra J. Int'l Bus. & L. 91
(2011)
The United Nations and Women–A Critique,
17 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 395
(2011)
Human Rights and the European Court of Justice: An Appraisal,
1 Fordham Int'l Law Journal 1104
(May 2008)
U.N. Peacekeepers and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: An End to Impunity,
7 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 185
(2008)
Dual System of Human Rights: The European Union,
14 Ilsa J. Int'l & Comp. L. 1
(Fall 2007)
Targeted Sanctions, Human Rights, and the Court of First Instance of the European
Community,
30 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1449
(May 2007)
Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 2006 Symposium: Can God and Caesar Coexist? Balancing
Religious Freedom and International Law,
45 J. Cath. Leg. Stud. 73
(2006)
A Constitution for the European Union? A Transatlantic Perspective,
19 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 351
(Fall 2005)
Equality and the European Union,
32 GA. J. INT'L & Comp. L. 73
(Winter 2004)
Women's Human Rights Violations and Sex Trafficking, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons-A New Approach,
10 ILSA J. Int'l & Comp. L. 485
(Spring 2004)
International Human Rights and the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976:The
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Human Rights,
8 ILSA J. Int'l & Comp. L. 363
(Spring 2002)
Human Rights and the European Union: Who Decides? Possible Conflicts Between the European
Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights,
19 DICK. J. Int'l. L. 301
(Winter 2001)
International Elections Monitoring: Should Democracy be a Right?: Elections-a Global
Right?,
9 Wis. Int'l. L. J. 321
(Fall 2001)
Minority Rights and Bi-lateral Agreements:An Effective Mechanism,
22 Hastings Int'l Comp. L. Rev. 291
(Winter 1999)
The Treaty of Amsterdam: The Next Step Towards Gender Equality?,
23 Boston College Journal of International Law Rev. 1
(Winter 1999)
Elections and Democracy: Armenia, A Case Study,
20 Loyola Int'l & Comp. L. J. 455
(March 1998)
Armenian Constitutional Referendum: Towards a Democratic Process,
9 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 269
(Fall 1995)
The Role of International Law in the Twenty-First Century: Women's Human Rights: The
Twenty-first Century,
18 Fordham Int'l. L. J. 1748
(May 1995)
Freedom of Speech and International Norms: A Response to Hate Speech,
29 Stan. J. Int'l L. 57
(Fall 1992)
BOOK CHAPTERS
Bi-Lateral Mechanism and Responsibility to Protect,
in
Chapter in Blood and Borders: The Responsibility to Protect and the Problem of the
Kin-State
(United Nations University 2011)
OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES
The Treaty of Lisbon and Accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights,
ILSA Journal of Internationall & Comparative Law at Nova Southeastern University,
2012 International Practitioner's Notebook
(forthcoming Fall 2012)
Current Development in the European Union, The Treaty of Lisbon and Human Rights,
16 ILSA J. Int'l & Comp. L. 413
(2010)
Constitution Building in Armenia: A Nation Once Again,
2 Parker School Journal of Eastern European Law, (Columbia University) 153
(1995)
An International Human Right: Gender Equality,
3 Journal of Women's Legal History 90
(1991)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
La Protection Des Droits Indivduels, Une Comparaison Entre L'Union Européene et Les
États-Unis,
525 DU MARCHÉ COMMUN ET DE L'UNION EUROPÉENNE
(March 2009)
(The Protection of Individual Rights, A Comparison between the European Union and
the United States)
CASE BOOKS
Women's Legal Rights: International Covenants as Alternative to ERA,
Transnational Publications
(1988)
(with Halberstam)
BOOK REVIEWS
Diritto Dell'Unione Europea by Professor Luigi Daniele,
19 The Digest-National Italian American Bar Association Law Journal 47
(2011)