20140924_Richardson_H_002-300x400Henry J. Richardson III has been Professor of Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law since 1983. He is widely published, in the American Journal of International Law and other journals, on a variety of topics in international law, including its relationship to African-Americans, development in Africa, and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa; international protection of human rights; and self-determination. Professor Richardson has also made foundational contributions to international legal theory, particularly critical race theory and TWAIL. He has been a leader at the American Society of International Law along several dimensions, always with an eye to establishing equity for people and issues of color. Professor Richardson teaches courses on international law, constitutional law and foreign policy, international human rights and international organizations.

Professor Richardson is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he studied with Myres McDougal and began a lifelong scholarly engagement with the New Haven School. Upon graduation in 1966, Professor Richardson served as International Legal Advisor to the Government of Malawi for nearly three years. He advised the newly independent state on inherited treaties and a range of southern African international legal negotiations and questions. Professor Richardson then became Faculty Africanist at Law at the University of California at Los Angeles, earning an LL.M. degree with a focus on international law and development in Africa. From 1971-1977, he was the first black faculty member at the Indiana University Law School (Bloomington) and visited at Northwestern Law School from 1973-74.   From 1977-79, he served on the National Security Council Staff in charge of African Policy and United Nations issues in President Carter’s administration. Professor Richardson was subsequently the Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to the Congressional Black Caucus and an attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the Department of Defense. He has subsequently consulted and participated in African educational, human rights, and international law advisory and monitoring missions. Professor Richardson was also active in several anti-apartheid groups relative to international law.

In 2016, Professor Richardson was the first American scholar named Honorary Life Member of the American Society of International Law.  In 2014, he was elected to the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.  In 2008, Professor Richardson published The Origin of African-American Interests in International Law.  In 1995 and 2006, he received the Friel-Scanlan prize for best faculty scholarship.  Professor Richardson has also received the AALS Clyde Ferguson Award for teaching, mentoring and scholarship.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a past holder of several offices in the American Society of International Law, including Vice President and Counsellor, and a founding member of both the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the Blacks in ASIL Task Force.

Education

LL.M., UCLA School of Law
LL.B., Yale Law School
A.B., Antioch College
Certificat en Histoire, Universite de Besancon, France

Publications

  1. From Birmingham’s Jail to Beyond the Riverside Church: Martin Luther King’s Global Authority, Howard L.J. 2015 (forthcoming)
  2. Critical Perspectives on Intervention, 29 Maryland J.Int’l Law 12 (2014)
  3. Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice 81 (V.O. Nmehielle ed., Eleven 2012)
  4. The Danger of the New Legal Colonialism, 104th Am Soc’y Int’l L. 393 (2011)
  5. Mitchell Lecture, The Origins of African-American Interests in International Law Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2011
  6. Two Treaties, and Global Influences of the American Civil Rights Movements, Through the Black International Tradition J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 59 (2010)
  7. Review of Dudziak, Exporting American Dreams, 28 L. & Hist. Rev. 558 (2010)
  8. Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Advances the African American International Tradition, NBA NEWS BULLETIN, Dec. 18, 2009 (op-ed).
  9. Dedication to Dean Robert J. Reinstein, 80 TEMPLE L. REV. 627 (2007).
  10. The Origins of African-American Interests in International Law (Carolina Academic Press 2008).
  11. Patrolling the Resource Transfer Frontier: Economic Rights and the South African Constitutional Court’s Contributions to International Justice, 9 African Stud. Q. (Fall 2007).
  12. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an International Human Rights Leader, 52 Vill. L. Rev. 471 (2007).
  13. Imperatives of Culture and Race for Understanding Human Rights Law, 52 BUFF. L. REV. 511 (2004) (review of HUMAN RIGHTS: A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CRITIQUE, by Makau Mutua).
  14. The Danger of Oligarchy within the Pan-Africanist Authority of the African Union, 13 TRANSNAT’L L. & CONTEMP. PROBS. 255 (2003).
  15. S. Hegemony, Race, and Oil in Deciding United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq, 17 Temple Int’l & Comp. L.J. 27 (2003).
  16. Reverend Leon Sullivan’s Principles, Race and International Law: A Comment, 15 Temple Int’l. & Comp. L.J. 55 (2001).
  17. Symposium, A Critical Thought on Self Determination for East Timor and Kosovo, 14 TEMP. INT’L. & COMP. L.J. 101 (2001).
  18. Symposium, Excluding Race Strategies from International Legal History: The Self-executing Treaty Doctrine and the Southern Africa Tripartite Agreement, 45 VILL. L. REV. 1091 (2000).
  19. Dinner and Self-Determination, in CRITICAL RACE THEORY: HISTORIES, CROSSROADS, DIRECTIONS Critical Race Theory Conference, Yale Law School, Nov. 1999 (Yale University Press).
  20. Book Review, 93 AM. J. OF INT’L L. 988 (1999); S. Akweenda, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE PROTECTION OF NAMIBIAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY: BOUNDARIES AND TERRITORIAL CLAIMS, (Spring, 1999).
  21. The UN Secretary-General Drops in on Saddam Hussein: A Few Reflections, TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL LAW SOCIETY NEWSLETTER, Spring, 1998.
  22. Tribute to Myres McDougal, YALE LAW REPORT (Fall, 1998).
  23. Commentary, The Execution of Angel Breard By the United States: Violating an Order of theInternational Court of Justice, 12 TEMP. INT’L & COMP. L.J. 121 (1998).
  24. John M. Lindsey, Professor Emeritus, 1932-1998, 12 TEMP. INT’L & COMP. L.J. I (1998).
  25. THE PHILADELPHIA SUNDAY SUN, Ouster of Boutros-Ghali a Painful Loss to United Nations January 12, 1997, p.8.
  26. Failed States. Self-Determination, and Preventive Diplomacy: Colonialist Nostalgia & Democratic Expectations, 10 TEMPLE INT’L & COMP. L.J., p.1 (1996) (Winner of Friel—Scanlan Award, 1977, for best Faculty Scholarship).
  27. Recent Issues in International Human Rights Law for Africa; African Regional Integration and Human Rights: Potential Problems; Regionalism in Africa; Papers, all published in PROCEEDINGS OF THE 89TH ANNUAL MEETING. THE AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, December 1995, at p. 484,500, and 551 respectively.
  28. “The Constitutive Fiction of Neutrality in United Nations Peacekeeping”, Paper presented in August 1995 at the African Society of International and Comparative Law, South Africa. Published in the Proceedings of the African Society, 1995.
  29. “INTERNATIONAL LAW: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE” by John Dugard; Book Review, 89 A.S.I.L. 650 (1995).
  30. “African Americans and International Law: For Professor Goler Teal Butcher, with Appreciation”, 37 HOWARD L.J. 217 (1994).
  31. Book Review, 88 A.J.I.L. 852 (1994);“HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER”, by Chandra Muzaffar
  32. The Effects of the New World Order on the Third World, (Chairman’s Remarks), proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting, American Society of Int’l. Law, at 37 (Dec. 1993).
  33. “International Law Implications for the Transition in South Africa”, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The American Society of International Law (1992).
  34. “Recent Struggles for Democracy Under Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions”, 6 TEMPLE INT’L. & COMP. L.J. 13 (1993).
  35. International Law Implications for the Transition in South Africa”, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The American Society of International Law (1992).
  36. “Recent Struggles for Democracy Under Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions”, 6 Temple Int’l. & Comp. L.J. 13 (1993).
  37. “The International Implications of the Los Angeles Riots”, 70 DEN. U.L. REV. 213 (1993).
  38. “The Gulf Crisis and Afro-American interests Under International Law”, 87 AM. J. INT’L. L. 42 (Jan. 1993).
  39. “International Law and the Continuation of Sanctions Against South Africa,” 3 TEMPLE INT’L. & COMP. L.J. 249 (1989).
  40. “The Price of Namibian Independence”, FOCUS (March 1989), Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
  41. “The Right to Food: the International Human Rights Response”, HOWARD L.J. (1987).
  42. Comment, “Divestment of the Stock Portfolio of the (American) Society (of International Law)”, 81 J,I.L. 744 (1987).
  43. Participant, Founding Conference, New York, 1987, of U.S. – Soviet Lawyers for a New Organization of International Lawyers for Disarmament.
  44. “The Obligation to Withdraw Recognition from Pretoria as the Government of South Africa”, 1 TEMPLE INT. & COMP. L . J . (1987).
  45. “Perceptions of Apartheid in South Africa”, THE TEMPLE REVIEW, Winter 1986.
  46. “The Advent of the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal”, 1 TEMPLE INT. & COMP. L.J. 1 (1985).
  47. “Constitutive Questions in the Negotiations for Namibian Independence”, 78 A.J.I.L. 76 (1984).
  48. “S. Policy Toward Namibia: Weaknesses and Contradictions,” IV THE JURIST 18 (1982).
  49. “Self Determination, International Law and the South African Bantustan Policy,” 17 COLUMBIA OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW 185 (1978).
  50. Consulting Editor, BLACK LAW J., Issue on International Law, Summer 1977.
  51. “Black People, Technocracy and Legal Process: Thoughts, Fears and Goals,” in PUBLIC POLICY FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY STRATEGIES AND PERSPECTIVES, Barnett and Hefner, eds. (1976).
  52. Review, Syz, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS (1974), in AMER, L INT’L LAW, January (1976).
  53. “Between Law and Justice: Professor Bittker’s Case for Black Reparations,” 50 INDIANA L.J. 517 (1975).
  54. “Black Professors and the Integrity of American Legal Education,” BLACK L.J. IV, NO. 3 (1975).
  55. “Reflections on Education in International Law in Africa” DENVER J.OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLICY, VOL. 4, NO. 2, p. 199 (1974).
  56. Review “African Penal Systems”, (Alan Milner ed.) 47 IND.L.J. 593 (1972).
  57. “Towards International Institutions of Black Communication,” UFAHAMU, (U.C.L.A.), Spring 1971.
  58. “Foreign Policy Decision Making and Social Change in Malawi,” in THE ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN AFRICA, E. P. Morgan ed. 1971.
  59. “Crossroads for Law in Africa,” (with Paul 0. Proehl) 18 UCLA L.R. 219 (1970).
  60. “Speculations on the Relevance of International Law to the Needs of Black Southern Africa,” UFAHAMU, Spring 1970.
  61. “Malawi: Between Black and White Africa,” AFRICA REPORT,  Spring 1970.