Rate My Professor Kristie Bluett

Kristie Bluett is an Associate Professor of Clinical Law and Director of the Domestic Violence and Civil Protection Order Clinic at the University of Cincinnati Donald P. Klekamp College of Law, a position she has held since fall 2022. She earned a B.A. summa cum laude from The George Washington University, where she received the Wilber J. Carr Prize for outstanding ability in international affairs and dedication to public service; a J.D. cum laude with a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University Law Center; and an L.L.M. with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining UC Law, Bluett served as a Clinical Teaching Fellow in Georgetown's International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, followed by a tenure as Visiting Professor and Acting Director from 2016 to 2017. During this time, she supervised law students on strategic litigation, legislative drafting, human rights reporting for partners in Sub-Saharan Africa, and fact-finding missions to Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and Eswatini. Earlier, after law school, she practiced for five years as a litigation associate at large firms in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, representing domestic violence survivors in asylum and U-visa cases. Bluett has delivered short-courses and trainings globally for law students, lawyers, judges, and professors in locations including Tbilisi, Georgia; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She remains a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, teaching trial skills to U.S. lawyers.

Bluett's research and teaching interests encompass international human rights law, with emphasis on women’s and children’s rights, immigration law and policy, family law, and lawyering skills. Her scholarly contributions include the article 'Marriage Equality under the ICCPR: How the Human Rights Committee Got It Wrong and Why It’s Time to Get It Right,' published in 35 American University International Law Review 605 (2020); a student note 'Girls’ Education Under Attack: The Detrimental Impact of Sexual Abuse by Teachers on School Girls’ Human Rights in Kenya,' 49 Georgetown Journal of International Law 241 (2018), which she supervised and edited; and 'The Promise of a New Constitution – Achieving Equal Inheritance Rights for Women in Swaziland: A Human Rights Report and Proposed Legislation,' 40 Georgetown Journal of International Law Online 441 (2009), co-authored with others. She has also produced reports for UNHCR Innovation Service, the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, addressing topics such as displaced populations in the Middle East and Africa, human rights defenders in Ukraine, misuse of counter-terrorism laws, COVID-19 emergency measures, and judicial independence in Poland.