Kenneth Vandevelde

Lecturer in Law

  • B.A. University of Louisville, 1975
  • J.D. Harvard Law School, 1979
  • M.A. University of California, San Diego, 2011
  • Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, 2012

Ken Vandevelde teaches multiple courses in the Master of Legal Studies program and Constitutional Law in the J.D. program. He began his legal career at Fried Frank in Washington, D.C., where he represented Native American tribes, litigated cases in federal and D.C. courts, and practiced federal election law with Sargent Shriver. He later served as an attorney-adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he represented the United States before the International Court of Justice and the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, advised the Department on international trade and investment matters, negotiated treaties on international economic law, and worked on a variety of matters, including rule of law programs, in Latin America.

He began his academic career at Whittier Law School and later taught at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where he served for a decade as President and Dean and led the law school through the ABA accreditation process. During those years, he occasionally represented indigents litigating constitutional and statutory issues in the California appellate courts. In 2014, he took a sabbatical leave to serve as a policy analyst in the Obama White House. More recently, he served as a member of the team representing the United States in two cases before the International Court of Justice.

Professor Vandevelde’s research has focused on two areas. One is the structure of legal thought, particularly in the areas of constitutional law and the common law. In 1996, he published Thinking Like a Lawyer: An Introduction to Legal Reasoning, which was followed by a second edition in 2011. His Ph.D. in U.S. history focused on the evolution of constitutional and legal thought.

The other focus of his research is international economic law. His books include The First Bilateral Investment Treaties: U.S. Postwar Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation Treaties (2017), Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy, and Interpretation (2010), and U.S. International Investment Agreements (2009), all published by Oxford University Press, as well as United States Investment Treaties: Policy and Practice (1992), published by Kluwer Law International. Professor Vandevelde has lectured on the subject of international economic law in some 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean, and has served as a consultant on the subject to the United Nations, the European Union, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and several foreign governments, and has been engaged as an expert witness on international investment law in multiple international arbitrations.

Bibliography

  • Books And Monographs
    • The First Bilateral Investment Treaties: U.S. Postwar Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaties (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
    • A History of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (San Diego: The California Press, 2012).
    • Thinking Like a Lawyer: An Introduction to Legal Reasoning (Boulder: Westview Press, 2011).
    • Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy and Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
    • U.S. International Investment Agreements (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
    • International Investment Rule-Marking: Stocktaking, Challenges and the Way Forward (Geneva: United Nations, 2008). (Principal Author).
    • (with Roberto Echandi), in International Investment Arrangements: Trends and Emerging Issues (Geneva: United Nations, 2006).
    • Investment Provisions in Economic Integration Agreements (Geneva: United Nations, 2006). (Principal Author).
    • Scope and Definition, UNCTAD Series on Issues in International Investment Agreements (Geneva: United Nations, 1999). (Principal Author)
    • Bilateral Investment Treaties in the Mid 1990s (Geneva: United Nations, 1998). (Principal Author).
    • Thinking Like a Lawyer: An Introduction to Legal Reasoning (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996).
    • United States Investment Treaties: Policy and Practice (Cambridge: Kluwer Law International, 1992).
  • Articles And Book Chapters
    • A Short History of International Economic Law, in Routledge Handbook on International Economic Law (edited by David Collins and Valentina Vadi, New York: Routledge Publishing, forthcoming 2025).
    • The Liberal Vision of the International Law on Foreign Investment, in Alternative Visions of the International Law on Foreign Investment: Essays in Honour of Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah (edited by Chin Leng Lim, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
    • Rebalancing through Exceptions, 17 Lewis & Clark Law Review 449. Full Text
    • Model Bilateral Investment Treaties: The Way Forward, 18 Southwestern Journal of International Law 307 (2012). Full Text
    • A Unified Theory of Fair and Equitable Treatment, 43 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 43 (2010). Full Text
    • A Brief History of International Investment Agreements, in The Effect of Bilateral Investment Treaties and Double Taxation Treaties on Foreign Direct Investment Flows (edited by Karl P. Sauvant and Lisa E. Sachs, 2009). Full Text
    • A Comparison of the 2004 and 1994 U.S. Model BITs: Rebalancing Investor and Host State Interests , in Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy 2008/2009 (edited by Karl P. Sauvant, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
    • Leadership in Times of Institutional Change, 37 University of Toledo Law Review 163 (2005). Full Text
    • The Economics of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 41 Harvard International Law Journal 469 (2000). Full Text
    • Fixing International Law or Fixing Castro, 48 Catholic University Law Review 101 (1999). Full Text
    • The Political Economy of a Bilateral Investment Treaty, 92 American Journal of International Law 621 (1998).
    • Investment Liberalization and Economic Development: The Role of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 36 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 501 (1998).
    • Sustainable Liberalism and the International Investment Regime, 19 Michigan Journal of International Law 373.
    • Toward an Effective International Investment Regime, 1997 American Society of International Law Proceedings 485 (1997).
    • Arbitration Provisions in the BITs and the ECT, in The Energy Charter Treaty (edited by Thomas Walde, Cambridge: Kluwer Law International, 1996).
    • Book Review, Rudolf Dolzer and Margrete Stevens, 'Bilateral Investment Treaties', 90 American Journal of International Law 545 (1996).
    • Book Review, Claire Cushman, "The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1993,", 3 San Diego Justice Journal 317 (1995).
    • Of Politics and Markets: The Shifting Ideology of the BITs, 11 International Tax and Business Lawyer 159 (1993). (now Berkeley Journal of International Law).
    • U.S. Bilateral Investment Treaties: The Second Wave, 14 Michigan Journal of International Law 621 (1993). Full Text
    • Ideology, Due Process, and Civil Procedure, 67 St. John's Law Review 265 (1993). Full Text
    • The BIT Program: A Fifteen-Year Appraisal, 1992 American Society of International Law Proceedings 532. Full Text
    • The Modern Doctrine of Prima Facie Tort, 79 Kentucky Law Journal 519 (1991). Full Text
    • A History of Prima Facie Tort: The Origins of a General Theory of Intentional Tort, 19 Hofstra Law Review 447 (1990). Full Text
    • Reassessing the Hickenlooper Amendment, 29 Virginia Journal of International Law 115 (1988). Full Text
    • Treaty Interpretation from a Negotiator's Perspective, 21 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 281 (1988). Full Text
    • The Bilateral Investment Treaty Program of the United States, 21 Cornell International Law Journal 201 (1988). Full Text
    • Organization and Administration: PAC Legal Considerations (with William E. Sudow, Esq.), in The PAC Handbook (edited by Kenneth Claire, Washington, Fraser/Associates, 1981).
    • The New Property of the Nineteenth Century: The Development of the Modern Concept of Property, 29 Buffalo Law Review 325 (1980). Full Text
    • International Regulation of Fluorocarbons, 2 Harvard Environmental Law Review 474 (1978).
    • The Urban Grant University Concept: A Systems Analysis (with Jessie L. Miller), 20 Behavioral Science 273. Full Text
  • Book Reviews
    • Book Review, Jean E. Kalicki and Anna Joubin-Bret, “Reshaping the Investor-State Dispute Settlement System: Journeys for the 21st Century, 23 Transnational Corporations 103 (2016). (Invited Submission)
    • Book Review, Rudolf Dolzer and Margrete Stevens, "Bilateral Investment Treaties, 90 American Journal of International Law 545 (1996).
    • Book Review, Claire Cushman, "The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1993, 3 San Diego Justice Journal 317 (1995).

Courses Available

LAW 112

Private Law: Property, Torts, and Contract
LAW 115

Business Law for Non-Lawyers
LAW 148

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