Philip Alston

John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law

Philip Alston’s teaching focuses primarily on international law, human rights law, privatization, and digital government. He is a faculty director of the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

Alston received degrees in law and in economics in Australia and a JSD from Berkeley. During the 1980s he taught at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and at Harvard Law School. He then became Professor of Law and Foundation Director of the Center for International and Public Law at the Australian National University, a post he held until 1995. From 1996 to 2001 he was Professor of International Law at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, where he was also head of department and co-director of the Academy of European Law. Read more

In the field of international law, Alston was editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Law from 1996 through 2007, and was previously co-editor-in-chief of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. He was a co-founder of both the European Society of International Law and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law. As a United Nations official, he worked in Geneva on human rights issues from 1978 to 1984. He has worked as a consultant to the ILO, the UNDP Human Development Report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNESCO, OECD, UNICEF, and many other inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. Other posts he has held include chief-of-staff to a cabinet minister in Australia in the Whitlam Government (1974-75), and Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory for three years.

In the human rights area, Alston was the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights from 2014 to 2020 and visited and reported on Spain, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, the United States of America, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, China, Mauritania, Chile, and Romania. He was previously UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions from 2004 to 2010 and undertook fact-finding missions to: Sri Lanka, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines, Israel, Lebanon, Albania, Kenya, Brazil, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, the United States, Albania, and Ecuador. He was a member of the Group of Experts on Darfur appointed in 2007 by the UN Human Rights Council, and was special adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals. He chaired the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights for eight years until 1998, and at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights he was elected to chair the first meeting of the Presidents and Chairs of all of the international human rights courts and committees (including the European and American Human Rights Courts and the African Commission). He was UNICEF's legal adviser throughout the period of the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and directed a major project funded by the European Commission, which resulted in the publication of a Human Rights Agenda for the European Union for the Year 2000 and a volume of essays on that theme. In 2010-11 he was a member of the Independent International Commission investigating human rights violations in Kyrgyzstan, and in 2014-15 a member of the UN Security Council's Commission of Inquiry into the Central African Republic.

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Philip
Alston
Professor
Lauren
Benton
Professor
Benedict
Kingsbury
Faculty Director
Katrina
Wyman
Professor
Joseph
Weiler
Professor
Jeremy
Waldron
Professor
Frank
Upham
Professor
Richard
Stewart
Professor
Linda
Silberman
Professor
Margaret
Satterthwaite
Professor
David
Golove
Professor
Franco
Ferrari
Professor
Eleanor
Fox
Professor
Gráinne
de Búrca
Professor
Jerome
Cohen
Professor
José
Alvarez
Professor
Kevin
Davis
Professor
Mattias
Kumm
Professor
Mitchell
Kane
Professor
Robert
Howse
Professor
Ryan
Goodman
Professor
Stephen
Holmes
Professor
Theodor
Meron
Professor
Eyal
Benvenisti
Professor
Simon
Chesterman
Senior Fellow
Megan
Donaldson
Fellow
Martti
Koskenniemi
Professor
Joanna
Langille
Fellow
Karin
Loevy
Visiting Scholar
David
Malone
Senior Fellow
Sally
Merry
Professor
Edefe
Ojomo
Professor
Chelsea
Anelli
IILJ Scholar
Mikaela
Ediger
IILJ Scholar
Nathaniel
Eisen
IILJ Scholar
Tess
Graham
IILJ Scholar
Claire
Schupmann
IILJ Scholar
Caroline
Zielinski
IILJ Scholar
Suraiya-Asmau
Zubair Banu
IILJ Scholar
Angelina
Fisher
Program Director
Rachel
Jones
Administrator
Paul
Mertenskötter
Institute Fellow
Thomas
Streinz
Institute Fellow
Benjamin
Straumann
Professor
Senior Fellow
Isabelle
Glimcher
IILJ Scholar
Gabriele
Wadlig
JSD student
Helen
Hershkoff
Professor
Alissa
Clarke
IILJ Scholar
Deborah Kay
Burand
Professor
Liam
Murphy
Professor
Brian
King
Adjunct Professor
Michele
Krech
JSD Candidate
Jackson
Gandour
IILJ Scholar
Robert
Barton
IILJ Scholar
Tatiana
August-Schmidt
IILJ Scholar
Harlan G.
Cohen
Senior Fellow
Tleuzhan
Zhunussova
Global Fellow
Kathryn
Gundersen
IILJ Scholar
Lucas
Cuatrecasas
IILJ Scholar
Sasha
Boutilier
IILJ Scholar
Camilla
Akbari
IILJ Scholar
Madhu
Narasimhan
IILJ Scholar
Elena
Hodges
IILJ Scholar
Beenish
Riaz
IILJ Scholar
Francesca
Iurlaro
Global Fellow
Henok Birhanu
Asmelash
Global Fellow
Veronica
Fikfak
Global Fellow
Carlos Andrés
Baquero-Díaz
JSD student
Katrina
Geddes
JSD student
Ngozi
Nwanta
JSD student
Mengjing
Kong
JSD Candidate
Eytan
Tepper
Global Fellow
Doreen
Lustig
Professor
Guy
Fiti Sinclair
Professor
Carmen
Lyon
IILJ Scholar
Navya
Dasari
IILJ Scholar
Michael
Leonetti
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Stewart
IILJ Scholar
Kevin
Kuate Fodouop
IILJ Scholar
Ciara
Taylor
IILJ Scholar
Kathleen
Morris
IILJ Scholar
Alison
Strongwater
IILJ Scholar
Galia
Popov
IILJ Scholar
Rochelle
Dreyfuss
Professor
César
Rodríguez-Garavito
Professor
Pedro
Martinez-Fraga
Adjunct Professor
Dimitri
Van Den Meerssche
Fellow
Alejandro
Rodiles
Professor
Nahuel
Maisley
Professor
Tara
Nair
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Marandett
IILJ Scholar
Shannon
Pennoyer
IILJ Scholar
Ian
Allen
IILJ Scholar
Lyla
Sax
IILJ Scholar
Jacko
Walz
IILJ Scholar
Shirin
Asgari
IILJ Scholar
Talya
Nevins
IILJ Scholar
Noa
Gur-Arie
IILJ Scholar
Josh
Zakharov
IILJ Scholar
Bhavini Sai
Kakani
IILJ Scholar
Israa
Saber
IILJ Scholar
Eirik
Bjorge
Global Fellow
Fernando
Lusa Bordin
Global Fellow
Sebastián
Mantilla Blanco
Global Fellow
Yirong
Sun
Fellow
Sasha
Aristotle
IILJ Scholar
Bassel
El-Rewini
IILJ Scholar
Sam
Karnes
IILJ Scholar
Anagha
Komaragiri
IILJ Scholar
Aidan
McGirr
IILJ Scholar
Isabel
Paolini
IILJ Scholar
Sharonya
Vadakattu
IILJ Scholar
Pierson
Broadwater
IILJ Scholar
Noah
Rosenblum
Assistant Professor
Junius
Williams
IILJ Scholar
Rachel
Steinig
IILJ Scholar
Ryen
Amora Diaz
IILJ Scholar