Eugene Kontorovich
Eugene Kontorovich is an Israeli legal scholar, specializing in piracy, universal jurisdiction, constitutional and international law. He serves as director of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, and is a professor at George Mason Law School, as well as a Senior Researcher at the Heritage Foundation.
Career
In the United States
Kontorovich studied law at the University of Chicago. He later clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2011, he received a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and in 2012 was awarded the Federalist Society's Bator Award, given annually to a young scholar under 40.From 2011 to 2018, Kontorovich worked as a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. Since then he has served as a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, where he established the Center for the Middle East and International Law.
Kontorovich coined the term "gaolbalization" : the practice of one country sending its excess prison population to another country with excess capacity.
In Israel
Kontorovich has been active in opposing boycotts of Israel and its settlements, including standing before a special US congressional committee on the topic.Kontorovich is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and is the director the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum. He occasionally writes for The Washington Post and The Jerusalem Post.
Kontorovich is a proponent of using anti-BDS laws to combat the BDS movement. He has helped many US states draft such legislation. In 2016, he served as an expert advisor to the group that sued the American Studies Association over its 2013 decision to boycott Israeli academic institutions.