Universities around the world recognized the accomplishments of NYU Law faculty members with the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa this year.
Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Law Bryan Stevenson received seven honorary degrees, from DePaul University, Rhode Island School of Design, Swarthmore College, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Miami School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington & Lee University.
Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit law organization dedicated to challenging racial and economic injustice and to reforming the criminal justice system. In 2018, Stevenson and EJI opened the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, to explore the history of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation in the United States and memorialize the victims of racial violence. Stevenson has achieved several landmark Supreme Court victories, successfully challenging extreme sentences for juveniles and other defendants. Announcing Stevenson’s degree on social media, the University of Edinburgh cited his “career-long dedication to helping the poor and those who are discriminated against, and for his work in human rights and social justice.”
Australian National University awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree to Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, for his contribution to international law and human rights law.
Since 2014, Alston has served as the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and has visited and reported on Chile, China, Mauritania, Romania, and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. From 2004 to 2010, he was UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. He has also been on the Independent International Commission on Kyrgyzstan and the UN Group of Experts on Darfur and served as special adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals; chairperson and rapporteur of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and UNICEF’s senior legal adviser on children’s rights. A former editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Law and former co-editor of the Australian Yearbook of International Law, he co-founded both the European Society of International Law and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law.
Professor Franco Ferrari, director of the Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law, was granted an honorary degree by the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. The university cited “outstanding work [that] has bestowed praise and credit on Comparative and International Commercial Law.”
Ferrari has published more than 290 law review articles and book chapters in various languages and 25 books in the areas of international commercial law, conflict of laws, comparative law, and international commercial arbitration. He acts as an international arbitrator both in international commercial arbitrations and, most recently, investment arbitrations. Formerly, he served as a member of the Italian delegation to various sessions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and was legal officer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, International Trade Law Branch. A recipient of the 2018 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars awarded by the American Society of International Law, Ferrari is a member of the editorial boards of various peer-reviewed European law journals (Internationales Handelsrecht, European Review of Private Law, Contratto e impresa, Contratto e impresa/Europa, and Revue de droit des affaires internationales) and the General Editor of the European International Arbitration Review.
Posted July 25, 2019