Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law and former dean at Yale Law School, will deliver the keynote address at the GW Law Diploma Ceremony on Sunday, May 18, at 3 PM ET.
Professor Koh is a leading expert in public and private international law, national security law, and human rights. For his human rights work, Professor Koh has received 18 honorary degrees and more than 30 awards, including awards from Columbia and Duke Law Schools and the American Bar Association International Law Section for his lifetime achievements in international law.
“We are honored to have Professor Koh as our keynote speaker for the 2025 Commencement Ceremony,” GW Law Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew said. “Professor Koh’s legal and human rights accomplishments should be inspiring for any of our 2025 graduates.”
Professor Koh started his career teaching law at GW and met his wife, Mary-Christy Fisher, JD' 79, who also taught at GW Law, while at the school.
“I am moved to return to address this year's graduates at GW Law, more than 40 years after it gave me my start in law teaching and introduced me to my wife, Mary-Christy Fisher, JD ‘79 and former GW Law teacher,” Professor Koh said.
Professor Koh has had an impressive career spanning all levels of higher education and government service. He has served four presidents of both parties over five decades at the departments of state and justice. He was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1998 to 2001 under former President Bill Clinton’s administration. Professor Koh went on to become the 15th dean of Yale Law School from 2004 to 2009 before taking leave to join the State Department as legal adviser under former President Barack Obama’s administration, a position he held until 2013. He returned to the Biden Administration in 2021 as senior adviser, the senior political appointee in the office he previously headed.
Professor Koh has made his mark on the law. In 1990, Professor Koh wrote an influential amicus brief and Senate testimony challenging former President George H.W. Bush’s contention that he could lead the U.S. into the Gulf War on his own authority as commander-in-chief. Professor Koh argued that the U.S. Constitution required the president to first consult with Congress.
Professor Koh also gained attention when he led a group of Yale students and human rights lawyers in a lawsuit against the U.S. government to free Haitian refugees held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Professor Koh and the plaintiffs won the case, Haitian Centers Council v. Sale, which resulted in some Haitian refugees’ release in 1993. He had appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as many international courts and tribunals since 2016 as counsel to Ukraine and Russia before the International Court of Justice.
Alongside his work as a dean, teacher, government official, and human rights practitioner, Professor Koh has authored hundreds of articles and 10 books, including The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair; Transnational Legal Problems; Transnational Business Problems (with GW Law Professor William Dodge); Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights; Transnational Litigation in United States Courts; and The National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century.