Jenny S. Martinez has been named dean of Stanford Law School. She will assume her new duties on April 1, 2019.
Professor Martinez joined the Stanford Law School faculty in 2003, serving as associate dean for curriculum from 2013 to 2016, and chair of a key working group that developed a plan to advance diversity and inclusion in the school in 2018. Currently, she serves as a professor of law, the Warren Christopher Professor of Practice of International Law and Diplomacy, and as a senior fellow of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. She is also a faculty affiliate of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.
Throughout her academic career, Professor Martinez’s research has focused on the role of legal institutions, historical and contemporary, in supporting and protecting human rights. She is a member of the American Law Institute and serves a a member of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. Additionally she is the author of The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2012).
“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve Stanford Law School as a leader at this important time,” said Professor Martinez. “Through my work in international and comparative law, I have seen how important law is to building societies where everyone is treated fairly and all kinds of human endeavors can flourish. Through innovative research and teaching, in collaboration with other departments in the university, Stanford Law School is uniquely situated to contribute to solving public policy problems and training lawyers for the future.”
Professor Martinez holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.