Bradley, Farahany, and Rai elected to membership in American Law Institute

March 26, 2013Duke Law News

Professors Curtis A. Bradley, Nita A. Farahany, and Arti K. Rai have been elected to membership in the American Law Institute (ALI). 

ALI members are distinguished lawyers, judges, and legal academics who produce scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law through publication of the highly influential Restatements of the Law, model statutes, and principles of law.

“The work of the ALI requires the most accomplished and respected lawyers, judges, and scholars and we are always looking for the intellectual leaders in every area of law. We are honored to be joined by these new members,” said ALI President Roberta Cooper Ramo in a March 26 ALI press release announcing the names of 40 individuals newly elected to membership.

“The work we do simply would not be possible without members who generously give of their time because of the importance of our projects. I am confident this new group will make tremendous contributions to ALI's work for years to come,” Ramo said.

Professor Curtis A. BradleyBradley is the William Van Alstyne Professor of Law, Professor of Public Policy Studies, and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, whose scholarly expertise spans the areas of constitutional law, international law, and foreign relations law.  He was the founding co-director of Duke Law School’s Center for International and Comparative Law and serves on the executive board of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security.  In 2004, Bradley served as counselor on international law in the Legal Adviser's Office of the U.S. State Department and he now serves as a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on International Law. He is a vice-president of the American Society of International Law, a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law, and a member of the International Law Association's Study Group on the Principles on the Application of International Law by Domestic Courts.  Bradley’s latest book, International Law in the U.S. Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2013), was recently the focus of a weeklong Opinio Juris online symposium.  He currently serves as a Reporter on the ALI's new Restatement project on The Foreign Relations Law of the United States.

Professor Nita A. FarahanyFarahany is a leading scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of biosciences and emerging technologies, particularly those related to neuroscience and behavioral genetics. She also holds appointments in Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and the Department of Philosophy. In 2010, Farahany was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, and continues to serve as a member. Her recent scholarship includes “Searching Secrets,”160 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1239 (2012) which explores the descriptive potential of intellectual property law as a metaphor to describe current Fourth Amendment search and seizure law and predict how the Fourth Amendment will apply to emerging technology. A related article, “Incriminating Thoughts,” 64 Stanford Law Review 351 (2012) demonstrates through modern neuroscience applications the need to redefine the taxonomy of evidence subject to the privilege against self-incrimination. She chairs the Criminal Justice Section of the American Association of Law Schools, serves on the Board of the International Neuroethics Society, and is the recipient of the 2013 Paul M. Bator award given annually to an outstanding legal academic under 40.

Professor Arti K. RaiRai, the Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law, is an internationally recognized expert in intellectual property law, administrative law, and health policy whose research on IP law and policy in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and software has been funded by NIH and the Kauffman Foundation. She has published over 50 articles, essays, and is the editor of Intellectual Property Law and Biotechnology: Critical Concepts (Edward Elgar, 2011), the co-author of a 2012 Kauffman Foundation monograph on cost-effective health care innovation, and the co-author of a casebook on law and the mental health system.  From 2009-2010, Rai served as the Administrator of the Office of External Affairs at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), leading  policy analysis of the patent reform legislation that ultimately became the America Invents Act and working to establish the USPTO’s Office of the Chief Economist. Prior to that time, she had served on President-Elect Obama’s transition team reviewing the USPTO.

“Election to membership in the ALI is both a well-deserved honor and a great opportunity for these three wonderful scholars to extend their influence in the many important law reform and restatement projects that the ALI undertakes,” said Dean David F. Levi, who serves on the Council of the ALI, the organization’s governing body. 

Twenty-three Duke Law faculty scholars and 50 alumni currently are among ALI’s 2,692 elected members.  The organization’s total membership of more than 4,300 includes ex officio members, honorary members, and life members.