Law

Jacob Katz Cogan

Headshot of Jacob Katz Cogan

Jacob Katz Cogan

Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law | Faculty Director, Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law, College of Law | Affiliate Faculty, Department of History

529 College of Law Building

513-556-0105

View CV | SSRN | International Law Reporter

About

Jacob Katz Cogan is the Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law at the College of Law. He is also an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Department of History. Professor Cogan teaches contracts, international business transactions, international commercial arbitration, property, and public international law. He earned his JD from the Yale Law School, his MA and PhD in History from Princeton University, and his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. Immediately prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Cogan served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he counseled policymakers on international organizations, international law enforcement, and international investment disputes, served as counsel for the United States at the International Court of Justice and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, and worked on cases at all levels of the U.S. federal courts. He is a recipient of the Department’s Superior Honor Award. He was previously a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and has held visiting appointments at Vanderbilt University Law School and the University of Chicago Law School.

Professor Cogan’s research focuses on the practice of international law, especially the hidden assumptions, informal rules, and tacit understandings that form the operational international legal system. In doing so, he often writes about international organizations and the history of international law. He is the coeditor of In Between and Across: Legal History Without Boundaries(forthcoming 2024), Proceedings of the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (2019), The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations (2016), and Looking to the Future: Essays on International Law in Honor of W. Michael Reisman (2011). Professor Cogan’s articles and essays have appeared in American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the Harvard International Law Journal, the Journal of the History of International Law, and the Yale Journal of International Law, among many other journals. He writes the section on the contemporary practice of the United States relating to international law for the American Journal of International Law. In 2010, he was awarded the Francis Deák Prize of the American Society of International Law.

Professor Cogan is the faculty director of the Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law, the co-editor-in-chief of the International Organizations Law Review, the series editor of the Elgar International Law Series, the deputy editor of the Human Rights Quarterly, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of International Law and Oxford International Organizations. He served previously as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Dean of Faculty at the College and was a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The College has recognized both his scholarship and teaching by awarding him the Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award and twice the Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He is the publisher of the International Law Reporter, a widely read and relied upon blog on scholarship, events, and ideas related to international law.

Education

BA, University of Pennsylvania
MA, Ph.D., Princeton University
JD, Yale Law School 

University of Cincinnati College of Law

  • Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, 2021-2024
  • Affiliate Faculty, Department of History, 2021-present
  • Faculty Director, Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law, 2020-present
  • Associate Dean of Faculty, 2018-2020
  • Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law, 2013-present
  • Professor of Law, 2011-2013
  • Associate Professor of Law, 2009-2011
  • Assistant Professor of Law, 2006-2009
  • Awards: Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2016 & 2023
  • Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award, 2016
  • Courses Contracts
  • Taught: Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Commercial Arbitration
  • International Litigation and Arbitration
  • International Tax
  • Property
  • Public International Law

 Vanderbilt University Law School 

  • Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Spring 2011
  • Courses: International Business Transactions
  • Public International Law 

University of Chicago Law School 

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Autumn 2004
  • Course: Public International Law 
  • Comparative Law
  • Contracts
  • International Business
  • International Law
  • Legal History
  • Contracts 
  • Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Commercial Arbitration 
  • International Litigation and Arbitration
  • International Tax 
  • Property
  • Public International Law

Books

  • Proceedings of the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (co-editor with Kathleen Claussen and Tafadzwa Pasipanodya) (2019)
  • The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations (co-editor with Ian Hurd and Ian Johnstone) (Oxford University Press, 2016)
  • Looking to the Future: Essays on International Law in Honor of W. Michael Reisman (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2011) (co-editor with Mahnoush H. Arsanjani, Robert D. Sloane, & Siegfried Wiessner)

Articles, Essays, and Book Reviews

  • Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 117 AMERICAN SHORTER JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 500 (2023)
  • WORKS Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 117 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 330 (2023)
  • Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 117 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 128 (2023)
  • Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 116 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 858 (2022)
  • “Mechanisms” at the United Nations, 25 MAX PLANCK YEARBOOK OF UNITED NATIONS LAW 77 (2021) 
  • Cities in the Shadows of International Institutional Law, 18 International Organizations Law Review 133 (2021) 
  • Book Review, 81 Zeitschrift für Ausländisches Öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 277 (2021) (reviewing Mark Swatek-Evenstein, A History of Humanitarian Intervention (2020))
  • International Organizations and Cities, in Research Handbook on International Law and Cities 158 (Helmut Aust & Janne E. Nijman eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021)
  • A History of International Law in the Vernacular, 22 Journal of the History of International Law (2020) 
  • International Organizations, in Concepts for International Law - Contributions to Disciplinary Thought 540 (Jean d’Aspremont & Sahib Singh eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019)
  • Introduction to Proceedings of the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 1 (with Kathleen Claussen and Tafadzwa Pasipanodya) (2019)
  • Book Review, 30 European Journal of International Law 349 (2019) (reviewing Juan Pablo Scarfi, The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas (2017))
  • Article 44, in The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Commentary 1162 (Ilias Bantekas, Michael Stein, & Dimitris Anastasiou eds., Oxford University Press, 2018)
  • Book Review, 28 European Journal of International Law 1415 (2017) (reviewing Guy Fiti Sinclair To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States (2017))
  • Preface to The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations, supra (2016) (with Ian Hurd and Ian Johnstone)
  • Financing and Budgets, in The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations, supra (2016)
  • Certain Activities Carried Out by Nicaragua in the Border Area; Construction of a Road in Costa Rica Along the San Juan River, 110 American Journal of International Law 320 (2016)
  • The Two Codes on the Use of Force, 27 European Journal of International Law 257 (2016) (with Monica Hakimi)
  • Stabilization and the Expanding Scope of the Security Council’s Work, 109 American Journal of International Law 324 (2015)
  • The Changing Form of the International Law Commission’s Work, in Evolutions in the Law of International Organizations 275 (Roberto Virzo & Ivan Ingravallo eds., 2015)
  • The Decline of ‘Drafts,’ 11 International Organizations Law Review 1 (2014)
  • Book Review, 108 American Journal of International Law 371 (2014) (reviewing The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Bardo Fassbender & Anne Peters eds., 2012))
  • Coordination in Global Health and Its Costs, 107 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 259 (2013)
  • International Decision,Stichting Mothers of Srebrenica v. Netherlands, 107 American Journal of International Law 884 (2013)
  • The 2012 Judicial Activity of the International Court of Justice, 107 American Journal of International Law 587 (2013)
  • The 2011 Judicial Activity of the International Court of Justice, 106 American Journal of International Law 586 (2012)
  • The Idea of Fragmentation, 105 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 123 (2011)
  • The Regulatory Turn in International Law, 52 Harvard International Law Journal 321 (2011)
  • Book Review, 105 American Journal of International Law 844 (2011) (reviewing Paul F. Diehl & Charlotte Ku, The Dynamics of International Law (2010))
  • The 2010 Judicial Activity of the International Court of Justice, 105 American Journal of International Law 477 (2011)
  • The 2009 Judicial Activity of the International Court of Justice, 104 American Journal of International Law 605 (2010)
  • Introduction to Looking to the Future, supra, at xiii (2010) (co-author with Mahnoush H. Arsanjani, Robert D. Sloane, & Siegfried Wiessner)
  • National Courts, Domestic Democracy, and the Evolution of International Law: A Reply to Eyal Benvenisti and George Downs, 20 European Journal of International Law 1013 (2009) (responding to Eyal Benvenisti & George W. Downs, National Courts, Domestic Democracy, and the Evolution of International Law, 20 European Journal of International Law 59 (2009))
  • Representation and Power in International Organization: The Operational Constitution and Its Critics, 103 American Journal of International Law 209 (2009)
  • Book Review, 96 Journal of American History 844 (2009) (reviewing Elizabeth R. Varon, Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859 (2008))
  • Competition and Control in International Adjudication, 48 Virginia Journal of International Law 411 (2008)
  • International Decision, Prosecutor v. Milutinović et al., Decisions on Requests of the United States of America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation for Review, 101 American Journal of International Law 163 (2007)
  • Book Review, 100 American Journal of International Law 278 (2006) (reviewing Michael Barnett & Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics (2004))
  • Noncompliance and the International Rule of Law, 31 Yale Journal of International Law 189 (2006)
  • Book Review, 20 Law and History Review 194 (2002) (reviewing Laura J. Scalia, America’s Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820-1850 (1999) 
  • International Criminal Courts and Fair Trials: Difficulties and Prospects, 27 Yale Journal of International Law 111 (2002)
  • Book Review, 88 Journal of American History 1074 (2001) (reviewing Maurice Baxter, Henry Clay the Lawyer (2000))
  • The Problem of Obtaining Evidence for International Criminal Courts, 22 Human Rights Quarterly 404 (2000)
  • Book Review, 107 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 105 (1999) (reviewing The Bill of Rights: Government Proscribed (Ronald Hoffman & Peter J. Albert eds., 1997))
  • 1846 Petition for Woman’s Suffrage, New York State Constitutional Convention, 22 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 427 (1997) (with Lori D. Ginzberg)
  • Note, The Look Within: Property, Capacity, and Suffrage in Nineteenth-Century America, 107 Yale Law Journal 473 (1997)
  • The Reynolds Affair and the Politics of Character, 16 Journal of the Early Republic 389 (1996)
  • Book Review, 53 William and Mary Quarterly 675 (1996) (reviewing Robert Rutland, James Madison and the American Nation, 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia (1996)); see also Communications, 54 William and Mary Quarterly 465 (1997) (replying to a letter from Joyce Appleby)
  • Book Review, 104 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 513 (1996) (reviewing Richard Brookhiser, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (1996))
  • Book Review, 27 Journal of Interdisciplinary History 332 (1996) (reviewing Jack P. Greene, Negotiated Authorities: Essays in Colonial Political and Constitutional History (1994))
  • Book Review, 63 Pennsylvania History 280 (1996) (reviewing Tony Freyer, Producers Versus Capitalists: Constitutional Conflict in Antebellum America (1994))
  • A Continental Divide in American History, 112 New Jersey History 79 (1994) (reviewing Stanley Elkins & Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (1993) and James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (1993))
Seminar Materials
 
  • GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM: TERRORISM, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, THE MATERIALS PROPOSED EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION (Yale Law School 2003) (comparative constitutional law materials published for Yale’s Global Constitutionalism Seminar, coedited with Paul Gewirtz) 
  • GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM: PRIVACY, PROPORTIONALITY, THE POLITICAL CASE (Yale Law School 2001 & Supp. 2002) (co-edited with Paul Gewirtz) 
  • GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, COURTS AND POLITICS (Yale Law School 2000) (co-edited with Paul Gewirtz and Karen Johnson)
  • GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM: LIFE AND DEATH, CITIZENSHIP (Yale Law School 1999) (co-edited with Paul Gewirtz) Jacob Katz Cogan – 7 GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM: EQUALITY, INTERNATIONAL NORMS (Yale Law School 1998) (co-edited with Paul Gewirtz)

Papers Presented

Four Modes of Representation in International Organizations

  • NSU Law Webinar Series, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 10, 2023 (scheduled)

International Organizations and Cities

  • International Law Colloquium, St. John’s University School of Law, February 4, 2021 Workshop on “The Role of Cities in International Law,” Freie Universität Berlin, December 9-10, 2019

The Scope and Scale of International Law

  • Workshop on “Varieties of Subsidiarity,” Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, November 26, 2012 Faculty of Law, Queen’s University (Canada), November 19, 2012
  • Conference on “The Evolution of the Law of International Organizations,” Università degli studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy, June 18-19, 2012

Financing and Budgets of International Organizations

  • Schott Lecture, University of Cincinnati College of Law, November 15, 2017 University of Minnesota Law School, International Law Colloquium, April 6, 2017

The Two Codes on the Use of Force (with Monica Hakimi)

  • The Cyber-Colloquium on International Law, November 13, 2014 Second Annual American Society of International Law-European Society of International Law-Rechtskulturen Workshop on International Legal Theory, University of Michigan Law School, November 14-15, 2013 Third Annual Research Forum, American Society of International Law, New York City, October 31-November 2, 2013 
  • Symposium on “Solving Global Problems,” New York Law School, April 12, 2013

 The Regulatory Turn in International Law

  • Wayne State University Law School, Program for International Legal Studies Speaker Series, February 22, 2012 University of Illinois College of Law, September 1, 2011 Temple University School of Law, International Law Colloquium, April 5, 2011 Vanderbilt University Law School, January 19, 2011 Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, November 10, 2010 4th Biennial Conference of the European Society of International Law, University of Cambridge, September 3, 2010 Villanova University School of Law, January 15, 2010

Representation and Power in International Organization: The Operational Constitution and Its Critics

  • Washington and Lee University School of Law, November 3, 2008 University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, International Law and International Relations Workshop, October 16, 2008
  • Georgetown University Law Center, International Legal Theory Colloquium, September 22, 2008 Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, March 28, 2008 Boston College Law School, March 14, 2008

Competition and Control in International Adjudication

  • Association of American Law Schools – American Society of International Law Joint Conference, Vancouver, June 18, 2007
  • Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington, April 6, 2007
  • University of Georgia School of Law, International Law Colloquium, March 2, 2007

Noncompliance and the International Rule of Law

  • University of Chicago Law School, Works-in-Progress Workshop, November 18, 2004

Conferences & Workshops Organized and Participation

  • Co-Organizer, Between Private and Public: A Celebration of Dirk Hartog, Princeton AND WORKSHOPS University, October 12-13, 2018
  • ORGANIZED Co-Chair, 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington, DC, April 4-7, 2018
  • Co-Organizer, Works-in-Progress Workshop, International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, October 28, 2011
  • Co-Organizer, Works-in-Progress Workshop, International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, Organization of American States, Washington, DC, October 29, 2010
  • Co-Organizer, Experts Meeting on the Responsibility of International Organizations, International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, Center on International Cooperation, New York University, October 30, 2009
  • Co-Organizer, Realistic Idealism in International Law: A Conference in Honor of W. Michael Reisman, Yale Law School, April 24, 2009; selected papers published at 34 YALE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL Law 499 (2009)
  • Participant, Workshop on Philippe Sands’s The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and AND WORKSHOP Britain’s Colonial Legacy, Temple Law School, April 18, 2023
  • Commentator, ASIL International Organizations Interest Group Works-in-Progress Conference, February 3, 2023
  • Discussant, “The Formation & Structure of International Entities,” Midyear Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Miami, November 11-12, 2022
  • Participant, Workshop on “The Role of Cities in International Law,” Freie Universität Berlin, December 9-10, 2019
  • Speaker, Workshop on “International Law as Process and Practice: A Transatlantic Conversation on Use of Force,” Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Berlin, July 3, 2019
  • Dinner Keynote, “Toward a Social History of International Law,” Conference on “Politics and the Histories of International Law,” Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, February 15-16, 2019
  • Panel Chair, Conference on “Contingency in the Course of International Law: How International Law Could Have Been,” University of Amsterdam, June 14-16, 2018
  • Panelist, “The Future of International Organization,” New York City Bar Association, March 10, 2017
  • Keynote Speaker, Workshop on “International/EU Law Scholarship and Teaching Facing Digital Technologies and Innovative Approaches,” Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza Roma Tre, December 5, 2016
  • Chair and Commentator, “Contentious Sovereignty: The Late Ottoman Empire and International Legal Theory and Practice,” Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History, November 7, 2014
  • Chair, “On Socializing States: A Conversation with Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks on Their Certificate of Merit Winning Book,” Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, April 11, 2014
  • Panelist, “Book Discussion: ‘Partly Laws Common to All Mankind’: Foreign Laws in American Courts, by Jeremy Waldron,” Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, April 5, 2013
  • Panelist, “21st Century International Institutions: Lessons from Global Health Governance?,” Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, April 5, 2013
  • Panelist, “Metatheory of International Law,” International Law Weekend 2012, American Branch of the International Law Association, New York City, October 25-27, 2012
  • Panelist, “War,” Life of the Mind Series, University of Cincinnati, November 29, 2011 Commentator, Works-in-Progress Workshop, International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, October 28, 2011
  • Commentator, Vanderbilt International Legal Studies Roundtable on International Organizations in Transition, Vanderbilt University Law School, April 8, 2011
  • Panelist, “Fragmentation of International Legal Orders and International Law: Ways Forward?,” Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, March 24, 2011
  • Moderator, “The International Law of State Immunity and Its Development by National Institutions,” conference on “Foreign Sovereign Immunity at Home and Abroad,” Vanderbilt University Law School, February 4, 2011
  • Commentator, Works-in-Progress Workshop, International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, Organization of American States, Washington, DC, October 29, 2010
  • Panelist, “The Role for Governments in ILC Projects – How Can the ILC Best Reflect the Needs and Views of States?,” conference on “The International Law Commission in the 21st Century: What Should It Be Doing to Make a Contemporary Difference?,” George Washington University Law School, March 29, 2010
  • Commentator, Junior International Law Scholars Association Conference, Temple University School of Law, February 13, 2009
  • Commentator, Vanderbilt International Legal Studies Roundtable on the Law and Politics of International Cooperation, Vanderbilt University Law School, January 18-19, 2008
  • Invited Participant, Workshop on Noncompliance with International Law, Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies, Northwestern University, November 1, 2007
  • Panelist, “The Avena Case in the International Court of Justice (Mexico v. United States of America): Can International Law Stop the Death Penalty?,” Association of American Law Schools (AALS) 2004 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January 4, 2004

Editorial Activities

American Journal of International Law

  • Member, Board of Editors, 2023-present
  • Section Editor, Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 2022-present
  • Elgar International Law Series, Edward Elgar Publishing Series Editor, 2019-present Member, Editorial Board, 2013-present

Human Rights Quarterly 

  • Deputy Editor, 2018-present
  • Member, Editorial Review Board, 2009-present

International Organizations Law Review 

  • Book Review Editor, 2022-present
  • Member, Editorial Board, 2014-present
  • Oxford International Organizations
  • Member, Editorial Board, 2015-present

Professional Activities and Affiliations

  • American Historical Association
  • American Law Institute (elected)
  • American Society for Legal History
  • American Society of International Law
  • Member, Signature Topic Steering Committee, 2022-present
  • Member, Budget Committee, 2018-present
  • Member, Program Committee, 2020-2023
  • Member, Executive Council, 2018-2021
  • Co-Chair, Annual Meeting Committee, 2017-2018
  • Member, Annual Meeting Committee, 2014-2015
  • Chair, Book Awards Committee, 2013-2014
  • Member, Book Awards Committee, 2012-2013
  • Co-Chair, International Organizations Interest Group, 2010-2012
  • Vice-Chair, International Organizations Interest Group, 2009-2010
  • Formerly, Council on Foreign Relations (term member), 2004-2009
  • European Society of International Law Organization of American Historians

University Service (Recent)

  • Academic Committee, 2021-present
  • Research Advisory Board, 2018-2020
  • College of Law Service (Recent)
  • Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, January 2021-present
  • Associate Dean of Faculty, 2018-2020 
  • Academic Leave Review Committee (Chair), 2021-present
  • Academic Policy and Curriculum Committee (Chair), 2021-present
  • Adjunct Faculty Committee (Chair), 2021-present
  • Appointments Committee (Member), 2019-2020
  • Diversity Committee (Member), 2022-2023
  • International Programs and LLM Admissions Committee (Chair), 2018-present
  • Lateral Appointments Committee (Chair), 2022-present
  • Research, Faculty Development, Library and Technology Committee (Chair), 2018-2020
  • Search Committee for Associate Dean of Library Services (Chair), 2019
  • Search Committee for Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Community Engagement, and Equity (Chair),2021
  • Search Committee for Assistant Dean of Academic Success and Bar Programs (Chair),2022
  • Search Committee for Director of Academic Success and Bar Programs (Co-Chair), 2022
  • Search Committee for Academic Affairs Program Coordinator (Chair), 2023
  • Search Committee for Program Manager, Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights (Chair), 2022

Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts (retired)
  • New York

Additional Activities

  • Publisher, International Law Reporter – ilreports.blogspot.com, 2007-present
  • A blog on scholarship, events, and ideas in international law, international relations, and foreign affairs law • More than 22,000 posts, 2,770,000 unique visits, and 3,640,000 page views since its inception in May 2007
  • Convener, The Cyber-Colloquium on International Law, 2011-2021 (on hiatus 2013-2014, 2016-2017)
  • A works-in-progress workshop, with participants from around the world, that meets online every four to six weeks to discuss the draft papers of its members

 

Awards

  • 2023 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching
  • 2016 Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award
  • 2016 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching