News Story

Chantal Thomas, professor of law at Cornell Law School, has been appointed director of the newly renamed Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East. Professor Thomas served as a legal researcher and Dean of the Law Department at the American University in Cairo from 2007-2008 and expects to leverage that experience in her new role. “To have the opportunity to lead and develop such an important program brings together all I have worked for in my legal career,” Thomas said. “I am grateful for Jack Clarke’s generosity in sustaining the program and for the Law School’s efforts to open the doors to a greater understanding of legal systems and scholarship, both in the Middle East and around the world.”

Thomas’ research focuses on the relationship between international law, political economy, and social justice; international trade and economic development; and comparative development law, with a focus on the Middle East, Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. She came to Cornell in 2007, having served as Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and Associate Professor of Law at Fordham Law School.

“I am delighted to have Chantal join us,” said John J. Barceló III, the Reich Director of the Berger International Legal Studies Program and the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law at Cornell Law School. “Her serious commitment to that part of the world and her desire to thicken the relationship between Cornell and legal scholars in the Middle East acknowledges the growing need for transnational legal understanding in this period of rapid globalization.”

The Clarke Initiative continues the work of the Clarke Middle East Fund, which supports conferences, professional travel, visiting and adjunct faculty members who teach courses related to the Middle East, scholarships for exceptional students, library materials dedicated to the Middle East, and the Clarke Middle East Speaker Series, with speakers who address current legal and policy issues facing the region. A new schedule will be announced this spring that includes plans to host an international conference in fall 2009.