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W&M law professor selected as LAPA Fellow

  • Recognition:
    Recognition:  A member of the William & Mary faculty since 2016, Butler taught previously at Columbia Law School, where he was the Kellis E. Parker Teaching Fellow, and at Yale Law School and the George Washington University Law School.  Photo by David F. Morrill
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William & Mary Law School Professor Jay Butler is among five scholars selected for fellowships by Princeton University’s Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) for the 2018-19 academic year.

While in residence at Princeton, fellows concentrate on their own research and writing projects on law-related subjects, and also engage with faculty and students through seminars, discussion groups, events and conferences.

The American Society of International Law honored Butler in April with the Francis Lieber Prizefor the most outstanding article published in 2017 in the field of law and armed conflict. During his fellowship at Princeton, Butler will pursue research on the corporate origins of the modern state and the implications of this background for current processes of international lawmaking.

"I am delighted to receive this fellowship and hope to produce further scholarship commensurate with the honor it represents,” Butler said.

In addition to Butler, the 2018-19 class of fellows includes Professor Amna Akbar of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Professor William Forbath of The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Professor Yukiko Koga of the Department of Anthropology at Hunter College, City University of New York, and Professor Elizabeth Sepper of Washington University School of Law.

A member of the William & Mary faculty since 2016, Butler taught previously at Columbia Law School, where he was the Kellis E. Parker Teaching Fellow, and at Yale Law School and the George Washington University Law School. Prior to his academic career, he clerked for Judge Giorgio Gaja and Judge Hisashi Owada of the International Court of Justice and served as a legal adviser to the Government of Japan.

He is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in history. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar in his senior year, he traveled to the United Kingdom to study at Oxford University, where he earned a B.A. in Jurisprudence. He graduated with his Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal of International Law.