Rate My Professor Jennifer Martinez

Jennifer Martinez is the Provost of Stanford University, Professor of Law, and Frederick Emmons Terman Professor. She served as Dean of Stanford Law School from 2019 to 2023 and previously as the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Warren Christopher Professor in the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy. Martinez earned a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1993 cum laude with distinction in the major and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1997 magna cum laude, where she won the Sears Prize and served as Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her scholarship centers on international law and constitutional law, including the historical development of international human rights, international courts and the U.S. Constitution, executive power in national security contexts, comparative constitutional law, and legal history.

Before joining Stanford Law School as Assistant Professor in 2003, Martinez clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court (1998-1999), Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1997-1998), and Judge Patricia Wald at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1999-2000), contributing to trials on genocide and war crimes. She practiced as a litigation associate at Jenner & Block LLC (2000-2003), handling constitutional, international, and antitrust matters, and was Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School (2002-2003). At Stanford, she advanced to full Professor in 2009 and Associate Dean for Curriculum (2013-2016). As lead counsel in Rumsfeld v. Padilla (2004) and amicus in cases like Boumediene v. Bush, she has influenced U.S. national security jurisprudence. Her book The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2012) examines 19th-century antislavery courts. Key publications include "Antislavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law" (Yale Law Journal, 2008), "Process and Substance in the 'War on Terror'" (Columbia Law Review, 2008), "Inherent Executive Power: A Comparative Perspective" (Yale Law Journal, 2006), and "Guilty Associations: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Command Responsibility, and the Development of International Criminal Law" (California Law Review, 2005, with Allison Danner). Martinez is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020), American Law Institute (2015), and American Society of International Law, and served on the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on International Law (2009-2021) and ABA Task Force on American Democracy (2023-present). She teaches constitutional law, civil procedure, international law, and international business transactions.