MANAGING BOARD AND OFFICE DIRECTORS

Paul R. Williams
Paul R. Williams is co-founder and Executive Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). Since 1995 PILPG has provided pro bono legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, drafting post-conflict constitutions, and prosecuting war criminals. In 2005, Dr. Williams, as Executive Director of PILPG, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by half a dozen of his pro bono government clients.

Dr. Williams is regarded as a social entrepreneur for his practical and innovative approach to providing pro bono legal assistance to states and governments. During the course of his legal practice, Dr. Williams has assisted over a dozen states and governments in major international peace negotiations, including serving as a delegation member in the Dayton negotiations (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Rambouillet/Paris negotiations (Kosovo), Lake Ohrid negotiations (Macedonia), and Podgorica/Belgrade negotiations (Serbia/Montenegro). He also advised parties to the Key West negotiations (Nagorno-Karabakh), the Oslo/Geneva negotiations (Sri Lanka), the Georgia/Abkhaz negotiations, and the Somalia peace talks.

He has advised fifteen governments across Europe, Africa and Asia on matters of public international law. Dr. Williams has advised the governments of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, Montenegro and Nagorno-Karabakh on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. He is also experienced advising governments on issues of state recognition, self-determination, and state succession including advising the President of Macedonia and the Foreign Minister of Montenegro. On issues relating to border and sea demarcations and negotiations, Dr. Williams has advised the President of Estonia and the Foreign Minister of East Timor.

Dr. Williams has testified before the U.S. Congress and provided expert commentary in the British House of Commons on matters of public international law and peace negotiations.

In addition to serving as the Executive Director of PILPG, Dr. Williams holds the Rebecca Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law.

Previously, Dr. Williams served in the Department of State's Office of the Legal Advisor for European and Canadian Affairs, as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He is a Member of the American Society of International Law and serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations.

Dr. Williams is a leading scholar on peace negotiations and post-conflict constitutions. He has authored four books on topics of international human rights, international environmental law and international norms of justice, and over two dozen articles on a wide variety of public international law topics. Dr. Williams is also a sought-after international law and policy analyst, and has been interviewed more than 250 times by major print and broadcast media. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal Europe, and Le Monde.

Michael P. Scharf
Michael Scharf is Professor of Law and Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

After graduating from Duke University Magna Cum Laude with distinction in Political Science and from Duke Law School with High Honors/Order of the Coif, Scharf clerked for Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat on the Eleventh Circuit Federal Court of Appeals.

During the first Bush and Clinton Administrations, Scharf served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he held the positions of Counsel to the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Attorney-Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Attorney-Adviser for United Nations Affairs, and delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In 1993, he was awarded the State Department's Meritorious Honor Award "in recognition of superb performance and exemplary leadership."

Prior to joining the faculty of Case Western Reserve, Scharf served as Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Law and Policy at New England School of Law, and as a visiting professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), the University of Paris X, the National University of Ireland in Galway, and the Australian National University in Canberra. He teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, public international law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, the law of international organizations, and international human rights law.

Scharf is the author of over forty scholarly articles and seven books, including Balkan Justice, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was awarded the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit for the Outstanding book in International Law in 1999, Peace with Justice, which won the International Association of Penal Law Book of the Year Award for 2003, and casebooks on The Law of International Organizations and International Criminal Law.

Scharf has testified as an expert before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee; his Op Eds have been published by the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune; he has appeared as a commentator on ABC News (Nightline with Ted Koppel), Fox News (The O'Reilly Factor), PBS (The Charlie Rose Show), CNN, Court TV, the BBC's The World, and National Public Radio (Morning Edition).

Scharf has served as Chairman of the District of Columbia Bar's International Law Section, the American Bar Association's International Institutions Committee, and the American Society of International Law's International Organizations Committee. He is currently President of the American National Section of the International Association of Penal Law; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association, a member of the Executive Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association, member of the Board of Directors of the International Legal Assistance Consortium, and Executive Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group.

James Hooper
James Hooper is a Managing Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group. He is the former director of the Washington office of the International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent non-government global advocacy organization that focuses on conflict early alert, prevention and containment. He also directed ICG’s Balkan programs.

In his prior capacity as executive director of the Balkan Action Council, a Washington-based non-profit organization, he analyzed the Balkan situation for the media in interviews with the Lehrer Newshour, CNN, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bosnian television, BBC, Voice of America, National Public Radio, Radio Free Europe, and numerous other broadcasting outlets plus frequent interviews with major U.S. and foreign newspapers and news magazines. His frequent public speaking appearances included occasional testimony before Congress. He was the subject of a feature article in the New York Times "Public Lives" series in 1999.

Previously, as a career United States diplomat with the Foreign Service for 25 years, Mr. Hooper served at assignments in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the 1973 October War; Beirut, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria, during the Lebanon civil war and formative years of the Arab-Israel peace process; Tripoli, Libya, during the Qadhafi-inspired mob attacks against the American Embassy; London, England; Kuwait, where as Deputy Ambassador he negotiated and implemented the naval protection agreement for reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers; and Warsaw, Poland, where as Deputy Ambassador he led the effort to prepare Poland’s post-communist government and military for NATO membership. He also served as the State Department’s director of Canadian Affairs and as diplomat-in-residence at the Political Science Department of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While serving as deputy director of the office of East European and Yugoslav affairs from 1989-91, he was responsible for managing U.S. bilateral relations with the Balkan and Baltic states. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1997.

Mr. Hooper was the most senior dissenter on Bosnia policy within the Department of State. He met with two secretaries of state, numerous senior Department officials, White House staff members, and gatherings of Foreign Service officers to promote an alternative approach to the Balkan crisis from 1991-1994.

Mr. Hooper received his Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University’s School of International Service in Washington, D.C. For the past three summers he has served as a Scholar in Residence with American University's Human Rights Institute.