Paul R. Dubinsky
Paul R. Dubinsky
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Biography
Teaching and lecturing:
Professor Paul Dubinsky teaches and lectures widely in the United States and abroad. His courses include civil procedure, comparative law, conflict of laws, international law, international litigation, national security law and U.S. treaty law. In addition to Wayne State, he has taught at Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York Law School, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Bar Ilan University. In 2016, he was a visiting scholar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Recent and upcoming presentations include: “Sanctuary Cities and Federalism” at the Levin Center at Wayne Law; “Supreme Law of the Land? Debating the Contemporary Effects of Treaties within the United States Legal System” at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr (London 2017); “Competing Models for Treaty Interpretation: Treaty as Contract, Treaty as Statute, Treaty as Delegation,” National University of Ireland (2017); “Federalism and Private International Law Treaties: Can the United States Lead?” at the American Society of International Law Workshop on International Law in Domestic Courts at Fordham Law School (2016); “Treaty Interpretation and Chevron,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty Workshop (Israel 2016) and “The Impact of Terrorism on the U.S. Legal System,” Shandong University (China).
Areas of expertise and law practice experience:
Dubinsky’s scholarly focus is on complex problems in transnational litigation and other forms of dispute resolution. This incorporates such areas as treaty negotiation and interpretation and comparative private international law, especially recent developments in the European Union and the Hague Conference on Private International Law in that field. Dubinsky also is an expert on the U.S. law of preclusion, including the Full Faith and Credit Statute. His work in progress explore the impact of contemporary national security law on U.S. civil procedure.
Before embarking on a career in teaching, Dubinsky was an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Associate Director of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, and Associate Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. Before that, he was an associate at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) engaged in private law practice in the areas of international litigation, EU law and international transactional work. From 1990 to 1991, he served as law clerk to Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.Professional service:
Dubinsky is vice president of the American branch of the International Law Association, book review editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law and a participant in the American Society of International Law’s interest group in International Law in Domestic Courts. Previously, he served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law and as a reporter for the International Congress of Comparative Law. From 2010 to 2015, Dubinsky was director of Graduate Studies at Wayne Law.Bar memberships:
Connecticut, District of Columbia, New York, Eastern District of New York, Southern District of New York
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Degrees and Certifications
LL.M., Katholieke Universiteit (Leuven, Belgium), magna cum laude
J.D., Harvard Law School, magna cum laude
B.A., Yale College, summa cum laude -
Selected publications
Journal Articles
Private Law Treaties and Federalism: Can the United States Lead, 54 Tex. Int'l L. J. 39 (2018)
Federalism and U.S. Participation in Private International Law Treaty Regimes, Tex. Int'l L. J. (2017)
International Law in the Legal System of the United States, 58 American Journal of Comparative Law 455 (2010)
Is Transnational Litigation a Distinct Field? The Persistence of American Exceptionalism in Procedural Law, 44 Stanford Journal of International Law 298 (2008)
Human Rights Law Meets Private Law Harmonization: The Coming Conflict, 30 Yale Journal of International Law 212 (2005)
The Essential Function of Federal Courts: The European Union and the United States Compared, 42 American Journal of Comparative Law 295 (1994)
Disparate Impact Challenges to Subjective Employment Decisions, 102 Harvard Law Review 308 (1988)
Books/Book Chapters
Supreme Law of the Land? Debating the Contemporary Effects of Treaties within the United States, (Cambridge University Press 2017) (with Professors Gregory Fox and Brad Roth)
"Harmonization and Voluntarism: The Role of Elites in Creating an Influential National Model, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," in Xander Kramer and Remco van Rhee (eds.), Civil Litigation in a Globalizing World (Asser Press 2017)
"International Law in the United States," in Dinah Shelton (ed.), International Law in Domestic Legal Systems (Oxford University Press 2011)
Book Reviews/Essays
Adventures in Treaty Interpretation, 57 American Journal of Comparative Law (2009)
International Law v. United States, Commentary Magazine (2006)
Justice for the Collective: The Limits of the Human Rights Class Action, 102 Michigan Law Review 1152 (2004)
Conference-Related Writing
The Future of Transnational Litigation in U.S. Courts: Distinct Field or Footnote? Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 365 (2007)
Challenging the Assumption of Equality: The Due Process Rights of Foreign Litigants in U.S. Courts, 5 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 410 (2007)
States' Rights v. International Trade: The Massachusetts Burma Law, 19 New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 347 (2000)
The International Criminal Court: Contemporary Perspectives and Prospects for Ratification, 16 New York Law School Journal of Human Rights 505 (2000)
What is a Human Right? Universals and the Challenge of Cultural Relativism, 11 Pace International Law Review (1999) (with Tracy Higgins, Michel Rosenfeld, Ruti Teitel and Jeremy Waldron)
Proposals of the Hague Conference and their Effect on Efforts to Enforce International Human Rights Through Adjudication, Doc. No. 117, Special Commission on the Question of Jurisdiction, Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements, Hague Conference on Private International Law (1998)
The Reach of Doing Business Jurisdiction and Transacting Business Jurisdiction Over Non-U.S. Individuals and Entities, Doc. No. 67 Special Commission on the Question of Jurisdiction, Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements, Hague Conference on Private International Law (1998)
- Social Science Research Network
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Books
Supreme Law of the Land? Debating the Contemporary Effects of Treaties within the United States Legal System
Edited by Paul R. Dubinsky, Gregory H. Fox and Brad R. Roth
How do treaties function in the American legal system? This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the current status of treaties in American law. Its ten chapters examine major areas of change in treaty law in recent decades, including treaty interpretation, federalism, self-execution, treaty implementing legislation, treaty form, and judicial barriers to treaty enforcement. The book also includes two in-depth case studies: one on the effectiveness of treaties in the regulation of armed conflict and one on the role of a resurgent federalism in complicating U.S. efforts to ratify and implement treaties in private international law. Each chapter asks whether the treaty rules of the 1987 Third Restatement of Foreign Relations Law accurately reflect today's judicial, executive and legislative practices. This volume is original and provocative, a useful desk companion for judges and practicing lawyers, and an engaging read for the general reader and graduate students.
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Accomplishments
- Paul Dubinsky attended the 78th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association in Sydney, Australia as vice president of the U.S. branch of the ILA. At the conference, he chaired the panel on “Cities at the Frontiers of International Law and Governance.”
- Paul Dubinsky has been appointed as scholar in residence in Wayne State's Humanities Center for the 2018-19 school year.
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Recent courses taught
Winter Term 2025 (future)
Winter Term 2024
Fall Term 2023
Winter Term 2023
Fall Term 2022
Winter Term 2022
