AUA APPOINTS NEW DEAN OF LAW PROGRAM, PROF. STEPHEN R. BARNETT

In December 1999, the Board of Trustees of the American University of Armenia (AUA) approved the appointment of Professor Stephen R. Barnett as AUA’s new Dean of Law. Prof. Barnett is a distinguished academic of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, where he holds the Elizabeth J. Boalt professorship. He has a central role in a number of programs involving the university and has considerable international experience, in addition to an extensive list of professional publications.

Upon his appointment, AUA President Haroutune Armenian stated, “We appreciate Prof. Barnett’s willingness to accept this position during a difficult period in the history of Armenia. We project that his involvement will strengthen the possibility of establishing a new dimension of development for the Rule of Law in Armenia and the region.”

Prof. Barnett received his LL.B. degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, studied at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, magna cum laude. Besides his 20 years experience as a Professor of Law, Prof. Barnett has also been a Deputy Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice and a law clerk in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals. He succeeds Professor Richard M. Buxbaum, also of the Boalt Hall faculty, who helped establish the AUA Law Program in 1996.

The Law Program of the American University of Armenia offers a Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M.), and focuses on comparative law in general and comparative constitutional, administrative, commercial, and business law in particular. It examines legal traditions of the civil law (Continental) and common law (American) systems, with special emphasis on legal and institutional reforms in the former Soviet republics.