
Christie S. Warren
Professor of the Practice of International and Comparative Law and Director, Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
Email: [[cswarr]]
Office phone: (757) 221-7852
Office location: Room 229A
Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Christie S. Warren is Professor of the Practice of International and Comparative Law and founding Director of the Center for Comparative Legal Studies & Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. She holds a BA with Distinction from the University of California at Berkeley, a JD from the University of California at Davis and a Certificate in Mediation from the Harvard Mediation Program. Her areas of specialization include Comparative Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, Post-Conflict Justice and the Rule of Law, Transitional Justice, Islamic Law, Public International Law, International Human Rights Law and Advanced Applied International Research.
Professor Warren served for sixteen years as a criminal defense trial lawyer in California, specializing in the defense of death penalty cases and serving as Training Director for the Northern California indigent criminal defense Bar, before turning to international legal development work in conflict and post-conflict contexts. She has designed, implemented and assessed constitutional, judicial, legal and academic programs in more than 58 countries throughout Africa, Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Russia and the Newly Independent States, the Balkans and Timor Leste.
Warren has received two Fulbright Distinguished Chair appointments. In 2016-2017 she served as the Fulbright-Schuman Chair at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and in 2024 – 2025 served as the Fulbright-Lund Distinguished Chair in Public International Law in Lund, Sweden, where she taught and conducted research at the Lund University Faculty of Law and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Under appointment by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, she served as Supreme Court Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, and under appointment by Chief Justice John G. Roberts served two terms as Supreme Court Fellows Commissioner. In 2010-2011 she served as the Senior Expert in Constitutional Issues on the United Nations Department of Political Affairs Mediation Support Unit Standby Team. She has advised on constitutional issues and processes in Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Somalia, Sudan and Ukraine and served as a Legal Advisor during the Darfur Peace Talks.
Professor Warren has also served as Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Visiting Professor of International Law at Sapienza University in Rome and holds a position as Affiliated Scholar at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. She is the recipient of the Administration of Justice Award, awarded by the Supreme Court Fellows Alumni Association, "In Recognition of Significant Contributions to the International Administration of Justice and the Rule of Law."
Scholarly Publications
Books
- International Legal Aid & Defender System Development Manual (Christie S. Warren et al. eds., Nat'l Legal Aid & Defender Ass'n 2010) (Director and Editor-in-Chief). Online.
Articles and Book Chapters
- The Constitutional Court of Kosovo in Comparative Perspective, in Conference Proceedings of the Solemn Ceremony and International Conference Commemorating the XIV Year of the Court (2024). Online.
- The Constitutional Court of Indonesia as a Post-Conflict Institution, in Courts and Diversity: Twenty Years of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia (Bertus de Villiers, Saldi Isra, and Pan Mohamad Faiz, eds. Brill, 2024). Online.
- A Brief Overview of Anti-Terrorism Legislation in the United States: Federal, State and Policy Considerations, in Seguridad y Libertad En El Sistema Democrático 379 (José Julio Fernández Rodríguez ed., 2020).
- Toolkit or Tinderbox? When Legal Systems Interface Conflict, 53 Cornell Int'l L.J. 297 (2020). Online.
- Institutionalizing Ethical Practices, in International Legal Aid & Defender System Development Manual (Christie S. Warren et al. eds., National Legal Aid & Defender Ass'n Press 2010).
- Lifting the Veil: Women and Islamic Law, 15 Cardozo J.L. & Gender 33 (2008). Online.
- Quitando el Velo: Mujeres y Derecho Islamico, 9 Complutense Anuario de Derechos Humanos 621 (2008). Online.
- Introduction to Special Collection: Seminar Papers on Women and Islamic Law, 11 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 505 (2005). Online.
- Court Administration as a Tool for Judicial Reform: An International Perspective, (2001). Online.
- The Cambodia Court Training Project, Sacremento County, B.J. (1995).
Other
- Senator Fulbright Had a Vision: His Successors Must See It Through, The Hill, June 21, 2025. Online.
- Comparative Legal Systems: Juries and Triers of Fact in Various Contexts, Oxford Constitutional Law (2020). SSRN.
- Jury, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2020) (updated 2024). Online.
- Revisiting Individual Rights and Personal Responsibilities Amid COVID-19, Diplomatic Courier, Aug. 27, 2020. Online.
- Constitutions and Islamic Law, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (2017). Online.
- State of the European Union, Fulbright Schuman Program, 2017 . Online.
- Watching European Democracy in Action, Medium, 2017. Online.
- The Hanafi School, in Oxford Bibliogs (Tamara Sonn ed., Oxford U. Press 2013). Online.
- Constitutions, Constitutionalism and the Role of Post-Conflict Constitution Building, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (2011).
- Islamic Criminal Law, in Oxford Bibliogs (Oxford U. Press 2010). Online.
- Islamic Commercial Law, in 1 Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World 469 (Oxford U. Press 2009). Online.
- Istislah, in 3 Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World 213 (Oxford U. Press 2009). Online.
- Polygyny, in 4 Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World 384 (Oxford U. Press 2009). Online.
- Constitution Guarantees Rights to All of Kosovo's Citizens, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Apr. 7, 2008. Online.
- Introduction to the Major Legal Systems of the World, United States Institute of Peace (2006).
- Notes from Cambodia, Defender Magazine: 1995, 1996, 1997.