Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor, will take the helm of Emory Law’s Center for International and Comparative Law in the coming academic year. The Center for International and Comparative Law creates a dynamic space for scholars and students to explore the interactions among international and domestic legal systems of the world and to engage both theory and practice for effective study and promotion of the rule of law. 

An internationally recognized law and society scholar, Fineman is a leading authority on critical legal theory and feminist jurisprudence. She is director and founder of the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative and the Feminism and Legal Theory Project. She is a convener of scholarly conversation with legal minds throughout the globe. 

“The Emory Law community is thrilled that Martha Fineman will take up the Directorship of Emory Law’s Center for International and Comparative Law.  Professor Fineman is an extraordinarily influential scholar and innovator who will bring her passion for global engagement to this important role.”  says Emory Law Dean Mary Anne Bobinski. “The Center for International and Comparative Law will continue grow and thrive with Professor Fineman’s leadership.”  

Following graduation from University of Chicago Law School in 1975, Fineman clerked for the Hon. Luther M. Swygert of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Fineman began her teaching career at the University of Wisconsin in 1976. In 1990, she moved to Columbia University where she was the Maurice T. Moore Professor. Before coming to Emory, she was on the Cornell Law School faculty where she held the Dorothea Clarke Professorship, the first endowed chair in feminist jurisprudence in the nation. 

More recently, Fineman has expanded the boundaries of feminist jurisprudence, leading the way towards a new legal framework based on vulnerability theory, developing the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative (VHC) in 2008. The VHC hosts visiting scholars from around the world and organizes several academic workshops each year that allow scholars to engage with the concepts of “vulnerability” and “resilience” and the idea of a “responsive state.”  There are satellite programs in Leeds, United Kingdom, and Lund, Sweden.  

Fineman says of her new appointment, “I look forward to this opportunity to further develop the scholarly work already undertaken by the Center by emphasizing the value of a comparative perspective for understanding both international and domestic law and policy.  To that end, the Center will be hosting visiting scholars from around the world, as well as holding internationally focused workshops encouraging Emory faculty and student engagement.”