Wayne State University

Aim Higher

William Burnham

Professor of Law
Office: Room 3401
Telephone: (313) 577-3928 Home: (734) 663-1240
Fax: (775) 599-4043
E-mail: w.burnham@wayne.edu

Homepage URL

Degrees and Certifications

A.B., Indiana University
B.S., Indiana University
J.D., Indiana University School of Law


Biography

 Professor Burnham’s international specialties are Comparative Law and Russian Law. Comparative Law is part of his regular teaching load at Wayne State and he has taught the Russian Law course at the University of Michigan Law School. In addition, he has taught foreign LLM students the introductory course on U.S. constitutional law at Michigan. He has taught at several foreign university law departments. Principal among them are the University of Utrecht and University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, Moscow State University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University, and Urals State Law Academy in Ekaterinburg, Russia. He was the recipient of two Fulbright awards, one for teaching in Moscow in 1991 and the other as the Distinguished Chair in Comparative Law at the University of Trento Law Department in Italy in 2001.

He is the author of a book on U.S. for law for foreign lawyers, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, 3d ed. (West 2011) (700 pp.) that is used in several leading universities in the United States to introduce foreign LLM law students to the U.S. legal system. It has been published in Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese. He is also the principal author of Law and Legal System of the Russian Federation, 5th ed. (Juris Publishing 2012) (674 pp.) (with Peter B. Maggs and Gennady M. Danilenko), a text for a course in Russian Law and a reference work for lawyers, legal scholars and Russian area specialists. Professor Burnham also has several legal publications in Russian, among them the book, Sudebnaya Advokatura [Trial Advocacy] (St. Petersburg U. Press 1996) (with Proshlyakov and Reshetnikova), the first book on trial advocacy techniques for Russian lawyers.

In addition to his scholarly and teaching interests, Professor Burnham has been actively involved in law reform activities in Russia. In 1992-1993 he served as a consultant to the Russian government on legislation introducing the first jury trials in Russia since the advent of Soviet power and was privileged to be an official American observer at the first such trial, held in Saratov in December, 1993. In 1997, he was a consultant for the World Bank, producing an analysis of the problems in Russian legal education and a grants program implementing needed reforms. In 2000-2002, he consulted with the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Legislation through the U.S. Department of Justice on the drafting and implementation of Russia’s new Criminal Procedure Code. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he participated as a teacher, consultant or expert for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Federal Judicial Center, the Center for Constitutional and Legislative Policy, the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative, the Soros Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the International Law Institute. He also served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice, working with the drafting group in Georgia responsible for drafting a new Criminal Procedure Code and working with the Russian Duma Committee on Legislation and the Federal Chamber of Advocates on amendments to the 2001 Russian Criminal Procedure Code. His latest projects, in 2011 and 2012, have involved him as a consultant for the British Council and the U.N. Development Programme on issues of criminal procedure reform in Vietnam.

Professor Burnham’s U.S. law specialties are Civil Rights Litigation, Civil Procedure, Federal Courts and Trial Advocacy. He has written several articles in these areas and has argued two federal civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court.


Books
  • Law and Legal System of the Russian Federation
    Law and Legal System of the Russian Federation (Juris Publishing, Inc., 3rd Edition) October 2004 co-authored with Peter B. Maggs and Gennady M. Danilenko

    This book is a detailed treatment of the substantive and procedural law, the legal profession and court systems of Russia written especially for English-speaking lawyers and law students. It has the basic characteristics of a casebook in that it sets out key decisions of the Russian Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and Supreme Arbitrazh (Commercial) Court, followed by notes and questions. But it also contains substantial analytical and explanatory text and other materials, thus making it ideal for use as a reference book..


Other Publications

Russian Criminal Procedure Code, English Translation, Volume 33, AMERICAN SERIES OF FOREIGN PENAL CODES (Hein & Co. 2007) with annotations

Russia’s War Between the Courts, 55 AM. J. OF COMPARATIVE LAW (2007)  (with Alexei Trochev)

Russia’s Criminal Procedure Code Five Years Out, Review of Central and East European Law (2007) (with Jeffrey Kahn)

Suing State and Local Government Actors in Michigan — Immunity Issues, 86 MICH. BAR JOURNAL 28 (February 2007)

Book Review of Feldbrugge & Sharlet, Public Policy and Law in Russia: In Search of a Unified Legal and Political Space, 54 AM. J. OF COMPARATIVE LAW 679-687 (2007)

Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, 4th edition (Thomson-West 2006) text for foreign lawyers and law students; published in Russian (2006), Chinese (2003), and Ukrainian (2000)

Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (as amended through June 29, 2004), English Translation with Commentary, STATUTES & DECISIONS OF THE USSR AND SUCCESSOR STATES, Vol. 40, Nos. 1-4 (2004) (389 pp.)

Russian Federation Criminal Procedure Code/Уголовно-процессуальный Кодекс Российской Федерации, Eurasia Division of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Overseas Prosecution Development and Training (2004) Side-by-Side Russian and English translation of Criminal Procedure Code with Annotations (translator, editor and annotator) (362 pp.) (2d ed. forthcoming 2007)

The Legal Context and Contributions of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, 100 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1227-1248 (2002)

The New Russian Criminal Code: A Window Onto Democratic Russia, 26 REVIEW OF CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPEAN LAW 365-424 (2001) (University of Leiden, Netherlands)

A Peek into the Future of U.S. Legal Education: Any Lessons for Japan?” 15 KWANSEI GAKUIN L. REV. 37-53 (2001)

Book Review: Bobotov and Zhigachev, Introduction to the Legal System of the USA, Государство и Право [State and Law] (Journal of the Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences), 1997, No. 10, p. 117 (in Russian)

“Beam Me Up, There’s No Intelligent Life Here”: A Dialog on the 11th Amendment with Lawyers from Mars, 75 NEBRASKA L. REV. 551 (1996)

СУДЕБНАЯ РЕФОРМА: ПРОБЛЕМЫ ГРАЖДАНСКОГО СУДОПРОИЗВОДСТВА [“Judicial Reform: Problems of Civil Procedure”], Chapter 5 Class Actions and Chapter 6 Enforcement of Judgments (Ekaterinburg Humanities U. Press 1996) (with Reshetnikova) (in Russian)

СУДЕБНАЯ АДВОКАТУРА [TRIAL ADVOCACY] (St. Petersburg State University Press 1996) (with Reshetnikova and Proshlyakov) Russian and U.S. trial techniques and teaching methodology, comparative analysis of U.S. and Russian jury trials (in Russian)

СУД ПРИСЯЖНЫХ ЗАСЕДАТЕЛЕЙ  [JURY TRIALS] (UNESCO Comm. for Human Rights and Democracy and Moscow Independent International Law Institute 1995) U.S. jury trial procedure and trial advocacy techniques (in Russian)

American Legal Consultant for СУД ПРИСЯЖНЫХ: ПОСОБИЕ ДЛЯ СУДЕЙ [JURY TRIALS: JUDGES’ BENCH BOOK] (ABA-CEELI and Russian Law Academy, Ministry of Justice, Moscow 1994) (in Russian)

The State as a “Non-Person” Under Section 1983: Some Comments on the Will Case and Suggestions for the Future, 70 OREGON L. REV. 1-56 (1991) (with Fayz)

Taming the Eleventh Amendment Without Overruling Hans v. Louisiana, 40 CASE  WESTERN RES. L. REV. 931-995 (1990)

Separating Constitutional and Common Law Torts: A Critique and a Proposed Constitutional Theory of Duty, 73 MINN. L. REV. 515-581 (1989)

Injury for Standing Purposes When Constitutional Right Are Violated: Common Law Public Value Adjudication at Work, 13 HASTINGS CONST. L. Q. 57-118 (1986)

Aspirational and Existential Interests of Social Reform Organizations: A New Role For The Ideological Plaintiff, 20 HARV. CIV. RTS.-CIV. LIB. L. REV. 153-209 (1985)

Federal Court Remedies for Past Misconduct of State Officials: The Legacy of Quern v. Jordan, 34 AM. U. L. REV. 53-106 (1984) 


Accomplishments
  • November 13, 2006
    William Burnham just returned from teaching the course on American Law at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands on the WSU-Maastricht exchange program. The course used the just-completed 2006 edition of his West book, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, a book written especially for foreign lawyers and law students. A Russian edition of the same book was just published in Moscow by Novaya Justitsia Publishing House (there are also Ukrainian and Chinese editions).

    While at Maastricht, he also gave a talk to the faculty on "Suing Governments in the US and the EU," which emphasized the availability of relief in the EU pursuant to the European Court's decisions in Francovich v. Italy and the difficulties of obtaining relief when suing states in the US because of sovereign immunity. He also spoke in the class on Comparative Criminal Procedure on Criminal Procedure in Russia. Peter Bal, the teacher of that class, is slated to teach Comparative Criminal Procedure at WSU next year.

    In October, Professor Burnham traveled to Russia to meet with the Working Group on the Criminal Procedure Code to discuss possible amendments to the pretrial investigation stage. His participation was sponsored by the US Department of Justice.

    In November, he spoke at a conference marking the five-year anniversary of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code of 2001 held at the Russian State Legal Academy in Moscow. His invitation to the conference was based on his participation in the Working Group in mark-up sessions throughout 2000 and 2001.

    Through Professor Burnham's efforts, a post-graduate Russian legal scholar, Irina Krylatova, was approved in October by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science to do research on her dissertation at WSU law school. Her research topic is "Protection of Property Interests in the Russian Federation and the USA." She will be in residence at WSU law school during the winter semester, 2007, and will stay on the law school floor of the Towers. Her visit is financed by a competitive "Russian Federation Presidential Fellowship Grant" administered by the Ministry. She is one of only 100 scholars selected for the grant nationwide. She hails from Ekaterinburg, Russia.

  • September 18, 2006
    William Burnham is teaching at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands during the fall term. In exchange, Professor Remco van Rhee of the U of Maastricht is teaching his Comparative Law course at WSU.
    The 4th edition of his book, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the US, was finished in July and was published by West-Thomson in time for Fall classes. The book is the text for a course for foreign lawyers on US law studying in the US. It is also used as an undergraduate text for pre-law and other students in US colleges. A Russian edition of the 3rd edition of the book was published in Russia in August.

    In April, he participated in the meetings of the Working Group on the Criminal Procedure Code, a subcommittee of the Legislation Committee of the State Duma. The working group is discussing possible changes to the 2001 Criminal Procedure Code.

    In Summer 2006, he taught an intensive version of the Russian Law course to US and Russian law students at the St. Petersburg Summer Law Institute, using his book, Law and Legal System of the Russian Federation (3rd ed. 2004).