The J. Sinclair Armstrong Professorship of International, Foreign and Comparative Law has been established at the Law School, according to Law School Dean Robert Clark.

Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, a member of the faculty since 1994, will be the first holder of the professorship. Slaughter's areas of interest include international litigation, the application of international relations theory to private and public international law, law and development, and the law of the European Union.

J. Sinclair Armstrong, for whom the professorship is named, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1941 and, after naval service in World War II, has had a career in private practice and banking. His public service activities have included terms as assistant secretary of the Navy and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His pro bono work has included support for international activities and service with the International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. His wife, Charlotte P. Armstrong, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1953 (the first Law School graduating class to include women), has served as president of the Harvard Law School (Alumni) Association and is an overseer of Harvard University.

The Armstrong Professorship is supported by a gift from the Reed Foundation, which has fostered similar programs at the law schools of Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Virginia.

"We are pleased for so many reasons to establish this new professorship at Harvard Law School," said Dean Clark. "International law, foreign law, and comparative law are increasingly important areas of teaching and research at Harvard Law School. Anne-Marie Slaughter, one of our leading new faculty members, will bring superb talents to this professorship. Sinclair Armstrong and his wife Charlotte are loyal and outstanding graduates and friends of the School. The Reed Foundation is generous and visionary in establishing a professorship in this vital area of legal education."

"This chair holds particular meaning for me," said Slaughter. "Globalization, as an economic and cultural phenomenon, is about comparative and foreign law as much as international law. The top lawyers of the 21st century must be global lawyers, familiar with the rudiments of many different legal systems and able to work within international and domestic legal institutions. The creation of the Armstrong Professorship is an important step toward making Harvard Law School the center of a new generation of global legal studies. I am honored to be the first holder of the chair."

"When Dean Clark asked us to contribute to the funding of this professorship in international law," Armstrong said, "it was agreed that it would have an emphasis on human rights. We think the United States Bill of Rights should be just as much an article of export to the rest of the world as the products of our farms, factories, and financial services."

Armstrong continued, "When Dean Clark announced Professor Slaughter's appointment, we were thrilled. We admire her accomplishments in research, writing, and teaching. She is ideal for this assignment. If Harvard had not found her, we would have had to invent her. We wish her every success in her expanded role at the Harvard Law School."

Slaughter, since her appointment in 1994, has taught Civil Procedure, International Litigation, an annual seminar in Law and International Relations, and the policy conference, Lawyers Without Borders.

Her representative publications are "Europe Before the Court: A Political Theory of Legal Integration," with W. Mattli, 47 International Organization 41 (1993); "International Law and International Relations Theory: A Dual Agenda," 87 American Journal of International Law 205 (1993); and "Law Among Liberal States: Liberal Internationalism and the Act of State Doctrine," 92 Columbia Law Review 8 (1992). She is currently finishing a book on legal relations among liberal democracies.

Slaughter received the D.Phil. in 1992 in international relations from Oxford University, the J.D. in 1985 from Harvard Law School, the M. Phil. in 1982 in international relations from Oxford University, and the A.B. in 1980 in international relations and European Cultural Studies from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Slaughter will become faculty co-director of the School's Graduate Program later this year.