UCLA School of Law Professor Hannah R. Garry, who serves as the executive director of the law school’s Promise Institute for Human Rights, has been appointed to the executive council and executive committee of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). In addition to her service on the governing bodies of the preeminent international law scholarly society, Garry co-chaired ASIL’s 2024 annual meeting earlier this month.

ASIL’s mission is to foster the study of international law and promote international relations based on law and justice. Founded in 1906 and chartered by Congress, ASIL is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization with special consultative status to the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council. With nearly 4,000 members spanning over 100 nations and globally advancing international law scholarship for professionals as well as policymakers and the public, ASIL is a key organization in the international law landscape. At this year’s annual meeting, with the theme “International Law in an Interdependent World,” more than 1,100 were in attendance, with 50 panels featuring over 300 speakers.

“Profound forces are endangering the human rights of millions of people worldwide,” Garry says. “Now more than ever, the work of impartial organizations like ASIL is crucial. I’ve been a member of the society since 2000 thanks to my mentor Professor David D. Caron, and I am honored to join the leadership of this inimitable organization. This appointment is personally very meaningful.”

Garry has been a scholar and teacher of international criminal law, transitional justice, and refugee law for over 15 years; was USC Law’s first U.S. Fulbright Scholar; and has been a research consultant with Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre for two years. Her excellence in teaching was recognized with the USC Mellon Award for faculty mentoring graduate students. She has extensive experience with international justice: she practiced as a senior legal advisor and authored amicus curiae in cases involving genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for nearly 20 years, including before the International Criminal Court (ICC); the Yugoslav, Rwandan, Cambodian and Lebanon tribunals; and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recently, Garry gave expert testimony before the ICC and U.N. Human Rights Committee on behalf of torture survivors and testified before the U.K. parliamentary inquiry with Afghan and Iranian human rights defenders on gender apartheid in Afghanistan. She is on the faculty advisory board of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s experts panel and Human Rights Watch’s Los Angeles committee. She joined UCLA Law as the executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights in 2023.