Alan Tzvika Nissel

Geoffrey H. Palmer Distinguished Practitioner in Residence

Assistant Professor of Law and Practice

Faculty Director of Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship & the Law

Caruso School of Law

310.506.4000

Biography

Professor Alan Nissel is a real estate practitioner and an expert in international property law. In 2019, Professor Nissel joined the Pepperdine Caruso Law faculty where he teaches property and international law and also serves as the Co-Director of the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law. For the past decade, Professor Nissel has served as In-House Counsel and later, Managing Principal of Wilshire Skyline, a real estate firm in Los Angeles. At Wilshire Skyline, Professor Nissel has developed ground-up construction projects, historic rehabilitations and value-add repositions.

Professor Nissel's academic research focuses on the doctrine of state responsibility and the practice of international law enforcement. His articles have appeared in numerous law journals, including the NYU Journal of International Law & Politics, the Michigan Journal of International Law, and the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. His doctorate traces the origins of professional international arbitration to the postbellum practice of protecting U.S. aliens in Latin America.

Prior to his time at Wilshire Skyline, Professor Nissel worked as an equity research analyst focusing on the emerging market banking sector. Following the 9/11 attacks, Professor Nissel left the private sector, serving as a consultant to both pursue his graduate degrees and serve as a consultant advising governments and non- governmental organizations on matters ranging from the human right to property to international law enforcement actions. In addition, Professor Nissel clerked for the Honorable Justice Eliezer Rivlin of the Supreme Court of Israel.

Education

Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland Doctorate in Law, 2017

New York University School of Law, New York, NY LL.M., International Law, May 2003
Cambridge University, Jesus College, Cambridge, England LL.B. with Honors, June 1999
Yeshiva University New York, NY B.A. with Honors in English Literature, January 1997

Articles

Alan Nissel, Welcome to the Apartment Hotel California, 33 J. Affordable Hous. & Cmty. Dev. L. 99 (2024) SSRN
Alan Nissel, One State's Rebel is Another State's Agent, 35 Eur. J. Int'l L. 207 (2024) SSRN OUP
Alan Nissel, The Duality of State Responsibility, 44 COLUM. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 793 (2013) SSRN HeinOnline
Alan Nissel, The ILC Articles on State Responsibility: Between Self-Help and Solidarity, 38 N.Y.U. J. INT'L L. & POL. 355 (2006) (Review Essay) SSRN HeinOnline
Alan Nissel, Continuing Crimes in the Rome Statute, 25 MICH. J. INT'L L. 653 SSRN HeinOnline

Books

Alan T. Nissel, MERCHANTS OF LEGALISM: A HISTORY OF STATE RESPONSIBILITY (1870-1960) (Cambridge University Press 2024) WorldCat
Joseph Weiler & Alan T. Nissel, eds., INTERNATIONAL LAW: ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL CONCEPTS (Routledge 2011) [6 Vols.] Worldcat

Book Chapters

Alan T. Nissel, Equality or Equivalence: A Very Brief Survey of Lex Talionis as a Concept of Justice in the Bible, in INTERNATIONAL LAW: ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL CONCEPTS (Joseph Weiler & Alan T. Nissel eds., Routledge 2011)

"The Fine Line between Property and Sovereignty: Part II," European Society of International Law Research Forum, Institute for International Law and European Law, Göttingen, April 4 2019.

"The Fine Line between Property and Sovereignty: Part I," Southern California International
Law Scholars Workshop 2019, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, February 15, 2019.

"The U.S. professionalization of international arbitration in Latin America (1870-1900)," Latin
America and International Law Conference, Universität Hamburg, February 9, 2018.

"Comment: The Design of Enforcement," Southern California International Law Scholars
Workshop, USC School of Law, February 10, 2017.

"The Future of State Responsibility," ASIL International Legal Theory Interest Group Annual
Symposium, Washington D.C., December 8, 2016.

"Liberal Responses to Illiberal Actions in Nineteenth Century International Law," Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington D.C., March 30-April 1, 2016.

"New Responsibility for New States: 1870-1900," Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, University of California, Irvine School of Law, Irvine, February 16, 2016.

"The Turn to Technique in U.S. Diplomacy," American Society of International Law Research Forum, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C., October 23, 2015.

"New Responsibility for New States," Yale Law School 2014 Doctoral Conference, New Haven,
November 14, 2014.

"The U.S. Origins of International Arbitration," Workshop, U.C.L.A. School of Law, Los Angeles,
May 7, 2014.

"Developing Real Property in Hollywood," UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles,
August 16, 2013.

"Doctrines of State Responsibility," International Law Division, Military Advocate General,
Department of Defense, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 03, 2013.

"The Turn to Technique: How and Why Americans Professionalized International Arbitration," Yigal Arnon Law and History Workshop, Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 03, 2013.

"The Politics of State Responsibility," Second biennial Dean Maxwell and Isle Cohen Doctoral
Seminar in International Law, McGill University, June 15-16, 2012.

"From Good to Great Power," Third Annual Conference of the Toronto Group, University of
Toronto, Canada, January 29-30, 2010.

"American International Law at the Turn of the 20th Century," American Voices XV, University of Turku North American Studies Conference, Finland, October 19-20, 2007.

"Responsibility without Democracy?" Fostering a Scholarly Network: International Law and Democratic Theory, a joint project of the American, Canadian, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand Societies for International Law, Wellington, New Zealand, June 27-28, 2006.

Courses

Property Law
International Law