John Cerone

John Cerone is the Paul Martin Senior Professor in International Affairs and Law. He also holds a faculty appointment at The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (Tufts University). During the 2014-15 academic year, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Human Rights & Humanitarian Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and Visiting Chair in Public International Law at Lund University Faculty of Law. In 2009, he was promoted to full professor and awarded tenure at the New England School of Law, where he also served as Director of New England’s Center for International Law & Policy. He teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law / the Law of Armed Conflict, and International Organizations.

As a practicing international lawyer, Professor Cerone has worked for a number of different intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, and the International Crisis Group, and has served as a legal adviser to various international criminal courts and tribunals. He also has extensive field experience in conflict and post-conflict environments, such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and East Timor. He has received the President’s Award of the Boston Bar Association for his legal work on Guantanamo Bay issues, which has included representing major international human rights organizations in detainee litigation before US courts and international human rights institutions.

He has lectured on human rights law, the law of armed conflict, and international criminal law at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo), the Inter-American Defense College, the Canadian Forces Staff College, the Swedish Defense University, NATO Headquarters, the Institut International des Droits de l'Homme, and in the ICRC Annual Course, and has been keynote speaker at the US Naval War College. He has taught in over 40 countries across all regions of the globe and is the author of dozens of articles and book chapters on international law, as well as the casebook Public International Law: Cases, Problems, and Texts (with Dinah Shelton and Stephen McCaffrey).

Education

• LL.M., New York University School of Law 1999
• J.D., University of Notre Dame 1998
• B.A., The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 1995

Selected Publications

Cerone, J. (2021). The Abandonment of Ratione Loci in International Human Rights Jurisprudence. Boston University International Law Journal.

Cerone, J., Epps, V., & Roth, B. (2019). International Law (Sixth Edition ed.). Carolina Academic Press.

Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., & Lagoutte, S. (2016). Tracing the Roles of Soft Law in Human Rights. Oxford University Press.

Elgar, E. (2017). International Humanitarian Law. J. Cerone (Ed.).

Cerone, J. (2016). Soft Law -- Stipulating a Definition. In Tracing the Roles of Soft Law in Human Rights. Oxford University Press.

Cerone, J. (2017). The Non-renunciation of Rights in Occupied Territory.

Cerone, J. (2017). Legal and Political Obstacles to Accountability for the Use of Chemical Weapons. In Nobel Seminar. The Nobel Institute.