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Photo of Roger P. Alford, LL.M.

Roger P. Alford, LL.M.
Professor of Law

Office: School of Law (SOL)
E-mail: roger.alford@pepperdine.edu

  • LL.M., Edinburgh University, 1992, magna cum laude
  • J.D., New York University, 1991, with honors
  • M. Div., Southern Seminary, 1988
  • B.A., Baylor University, 1985, with honors

SSRN Author Page

Prior to joining the faculty in 2000, Professor Alford served as a senior legal advisor with the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland, the tribunal established by the Volcker Commission to resolve claims to Holocaust-era dormant Swiss bank accounts. From 1995 to 1999, he was in private practice with Hogan & Hartson, Washington, D.C. He clerked for the Honorable James L. Buckley, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia (1994-95), and the Honorable Richard C. Allison, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, in The Hague, Netherlands (1992-94).

He is the founder and general editor of www.kluwerarbitration.com, a comprehensive online international arbitration portal. He has authored and edited a number of scholarly articles that have been published in the American Journal of International Law, UCLA Law Review, Ohio State Law Review, New York University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Michigan Law Review, International Lawyer, the Virginia Journal of International Law, the Berkeley Journal of International Law, and the Cornell International Law Journal. He has also co-edited a book on Holocaust Restitution published with New York University Press in 2006. The focus of his scholarship is foreign relations law, international commercial law, human rights law, arbitration, and international courts and tribunals.

He is a permanent contributor to the international law blog "Opinio Juris". He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, the Executive Committee of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration, and the Executive Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association.

Professor Alford has taught Contracts, Constitutional Law, International Law, Arbitration, International Alternative Dispute Resolution, International Trade, and International Litigation.

Selected Works:
  • The Nonuse of Constitutional Comparativism by Inferior Courts, 76 FORDHAM L. REV. (forthcoming).
  • Free Speech and the Case for Constitutional Exceptionalism, 106 MICH. L. REV. 1071 (2008) (book review).
  • Lower Courts and Constitutional Comparativism, 77 FORDHAM L. REV. 647 (2008) (symposium issue).
  • Arbitrating Human Rights, 83 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 505 (2008).
  • The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates as International Norm Entrepreneurs, 49 VA. J. INT'L L. 61 (2008).
  • Book Review (reviewing Tai-Heng Cheng, STATE SUCCESSION AND COMMERCIAL OBLIGATIONS), 23 ARBITRATION INT'L 511 (2007).
  • Reflections on US--Zeroing: A Study in Judicial Overreaching by the WTO Appellate Body, 45 COLUMBIA J. TRANSNATIONAL L. 196 (2006).
  • Four Mistakes in the Debate on "Outsourcing Authority", 69 ALBANY L. REV. 653 (2006).
  • Foreign Relations as a Matter of Interpretation: The Use and Abuse of "Charming Betsy", 67 OHIO ST. L.J. 1339 (2006).
  • Arbitrating Human Rights, 99 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 233 (2005).
  • Roper v. Simmons and Our Constitution in International Equipoise, 53 UCLA L. REV. 1 (2005).
  • In Search of a Theory for Constitutional Comparativism, 52 UCLA L. REV. 639 (2005).
  • Federal Courts, International Tribunals, and the Continuum of Deference: A Postscript on Lawrence v. Texas, 44 VA. J. INT'L L. 913 (2004).
  • International Legal Developments in Review: 2003, INT'L LAW. 113 (2004).
  • Binding Sovereign Non-Signatories, MEALEY'S INT'L ARB. REP., Mar. 2004, at 1.
  • Misusing International Sources to Interpret the Constitution, 98 AM. J. INT'L L. 57 (2004).
  • The American Influence on International Arbitration, 19 OHIO ST. J. ON DISP. RESOL. 69 (2003).
  • Report to California Law Revision Commission Regarding Recommendations for Changes to California Arbitration Law, 4 PEPP. DISP. RESOL. L.J. 1 (2003).
  • Introductory Note to U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit: Nemariam, et al. v. Ethiopia, 42 INT'L LEGAL MATTERS 420 (2003).
  • Introduction to: Foreign Law Year in Review: 2002, 37 INT'L LAW. 241 (2003).
  • Federal Courts, International Tribunals, and the Continuum of Deference, 43 VA. J. INT'L L. 675 (2003).
  • International Legal Developments in Review: 2002, 37 INT'L LAW. 243 (2003).
  • The Claims Resolution Tribunal and Holocaust Claims Against Swiss Banks, 20 BERKELEY J. INT'L L. 250 (2002).
  • On War as Hell, 3 CHI. J. INT'L L. 207 (2002).
  • The Legalization of International Relations/The Internationalization of Legal Relations, 96 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 1 (2002).
  • Introduction to: Foreign Law Year in Review: 2001, 36 INT'L LAW. 751 (2002).
  • International Legal Developments in Review: 2001, 36 INT'L LAW. 265 (2002).
  • The Internationalization of Legal Relations, 96 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 146 (2002).
  • International Legal Developments in Review: 2000, 35 INT'L LAW. 239 (2001).
  • Introduction to: Foreign Law Year in Review: 2000, 35 INT'L LAW. 867 (2001).
  • Public Policy; 'Eastern' Reinforces the Notion That Arbitration Pacts Should be Placed on the Same Footing as Other Contracts, LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL, Verdicts & Settlements (supplement), Jan. 3, 2001, at S14.
  • The Virtual World and the Arbitration World, 18 J. INT'L ARB. 449 (2001).
  • Book Reviews (Mark W. Janis, THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW and Mark W. Janis & Carolyn Evans, RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL LAW), 16 J. L. & RELIGION 595 (2001).
  • International Courts and Tribunals, 34 INT'L LAW. 651 (2000).
  • The Proliferation of International Courts and Tribunals: International Adjudication in Ascendance, 94 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 160 (2000).
  • Roger P. Alford & Thomas J. Stipanowich, ARBITRATION LAW AND PRACTICE (Aspen, forthcoming).
  • Roger P. Alford & Catherine Rogers, THE FUTURE OF INVESTMENT ARBITRATION (Oxford Univ. Press 2009).
  • Evidentiary Practices Before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, in THE IRAN-U.S. CLAIMS TRIBUNAL AT 25: THE CASES EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW FOR INTERNATIONAL AND INVESTOR-STATE ARBITRATION (Chris Drahozal and Chris Gibson eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2007).
  • HOLOCAUST RESTITUTION: PERSPECTIVES ON THE LITIGATION AND ITS LEGACY (Roger P. Alford & Michael J. Bazyler eds., NYU Press 2006).