Feisal Amin Rasoul al-Istrabadi: Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Bloomington

Feisal Amin Rasoul al-Istrabadi

Michael A. and Laurie Burns McRobbie Professor in Global Strategic Studies and Professor of Central Eurasian Studies, IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Middle East, Affiliated Professor of Law

Email:: fistraba@iu.edu
Phone:: (812) 855-4221
Location:: Global and International Studies Building, 3058

Education

Indiana University B.A. 1986
Indiana University Maurer School of Law J.D. 1988
Northwestern University LL.M. 2005
Northwestern University S.J.D. 2009

Courses

Human Rights

Background

Private practice, 1988-2004
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, New York, 2004-2007

Biography

Ambassador Istrabadi focuses his research on the processes of building legal and political institutions in countries in transition from dictatorship to democracy. He brings a mulit-disciplinary approach to studying the emergence of constitutionalism in such societies, including questions of timing and legitimacy, issues of transitional justice, and the political and cultural factors which influence the process of democratization. Ambassador Istrabadi lectures often at universities and think tanks on Iraq-related issues. He appears frequently in national and international media.

Prior to his diplomatic appointment, Ambassador Istrabadi served as a legal advisor to the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs during the negotiations for U.N. Security Council resolution 1546 of June 8, 2004, which recognized the reassertion by Iraq of its sovereignty. He was also principal legal drafter of Iraq's interim constitution, the Law of Administration of the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period, and principal author of its Bill of Fundamental Rights. Before contributing to the reconstruction of Iraq, Mr. Istrabadi was a practicing trial lawyer in the United States for 15 years, with approximately 70 civil trials in federal and state courts, focusing on civil rights, employment discrimination, and constitutional torts. He also served a Senior Legal Fellow for Legal Reform and Development in the Arab World at the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University's College of Law in Chicago. In 2015 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the Media

Featured in "Feisal al-Istabadi helped rebuild Iraq. Now he teaches at IU," Indiana Daily Student (9/29/2024)
Quoted in "Unseen photo of Queen Elizabeth II at 1979 UAE lecture on 'Hamlet'," The National News (6/22/2022)
Quoted in "What Happened After the Middle East Studies Association Backed an Israel Boycott," Chronicle of Higher Education (4/19/2022)