ABA Recognizes Professor Murphy
The American Bar Association Section of International Law has selected Professor John Murphy as the 2011 recipient of the Louis B. Sohn Award for Public International Law. This award is presented periodically to persons who have made “distinguished, long-standing contributions to the field of public international law.”
As a recipient of the Louis B. Sohn Award, Professor Murphy joins an intimate group of prestigious legal scholars. Past award recipients include:
- Jerome J. Shestack: former President of the American Bar Association; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; leading commercial litigator.
- James H. Carter: Partner, New York Office of Sullivan & Cromwell; former Chairman, Section of International Law, American Bar Association; President, American Society of International Law.
- The late Professor Louis B. Henkin: former University Professor of Law, Columbia University; Chief Reporter, Restatement Third, Foreign Relations Law of the United States; President, American Society of International Law
- Rosalyn Higgins: Prominent scholar of international law; former President Judge, International Court of Justice
- Thomas Buergenthal: former Judge, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Judge, International Court of Justice
- Harold H. Koh: Former Dean, Yale Law School; Legal Advisor, U.S. Department of State.
- Arthur Helton: Prominent authority on immigration law (died in the suicide bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Iraq)
- Elliot Richardson: Held four cabinet positions, more than any other person in U.S history; U.S. Secretary of Defense and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. Mr. Richardson was perhaps most famous for declining, when he was Attorney General of the United States, President Nixon's order to fire Archibald M. Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor, electing instead to resign.
Professor Murphy is an authority on international law. He has authored fourteen books and monographs and eighty-nine articles on various international law topics. His works are lauded for their practical, pragmatic, and eminently sensible approach to global legal issues. Professor Murphy teaches International Business Transactions, International Human Rights, and International Criminal Law at Villanova.
