Working for a 'safer, less chaotic' world

Leila Sadat Wexler brings global perspective, concern for human rights to teaching, research

Leila Sadat Wexler, J.D., LL.M., D.E.A., offers pointers to Andrew Ruben, left, a member of the Phillip C. Jessup International Moot Court Team Wexler advises. The team recently won the Midwest Regional competition and competed at the International Moot Court World Cup in Washington, D.C., which draws teams from 46 countries. Other team members are (from left) Michelle Noltemeyer, Robert Tomilson, Gilbert Sison and Richard Carden.

As the distant cousin of Anwar Sadat and the granddaughter of an illustrious Syrian physician -- whose patients included Prince Abdullah of Transjordan and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia -- Leila Sadat Wexler, J.D., LL.M., D.E.A., professor of law, reflects an innate international perspective.

She grew up in a family where Arabic and French were spoken frequently and current events were a natural topic at the dinner table, so it would seem logical that Wexler would ultimately become a leading expert on international and comparative law. Wexler's career path, however, was not so obvious to her father, who wished her to follow the family tradition of becoming a doctor.

Wexler dutifully pursued pre-med courses at Rutgers University, but she followed her interests in current events and international debate as well. She served as president of the New Jersey State Student Association and as a student member of the University Investment Advisory Committee, which was struggling over whether to divest its holdings in corporations doing business in South Africa.

"I didn't know anything about investment, but I got a book out of the library on South Africa and apartheid, and it seemed like a no-brainer to me," Wexler recalled. "The committee decided not to divest, so I wrote a dissent. I argued that there ought to be a principle for ethical investment."

Although she was accepted into medical school upon graduation from Rutgers, Wexler decided to enroll in law school after taking some time off. During her first year at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Wexler knew she wanted to be a law professor. "If you are really lucky, you get a calling," Wexler said.

After graduating first in her class in 1985, Wexler clerked for a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge. She then pursued a master of laws at Columbia University, where she was awarded a Jervey Fellowship in Foreign Law, which included a year of legal study in Paris. Wexler remained in Paris to earn a doctoral diploma in law at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1988. She also held two prestigious judicial clerkships at La Cour de Cassation (the French Supreme Court) and Le Conseil d'État (France's Supreme Court for Administrative Affairs). Licensed to practice law in France and the United States, Wexler practiced international law in Paris for five years before joining the Washington University law faculty in 1992.

Her expertise in private and public international law, European Union law and international criminal law combined with her gifts as a teacher have made her an excellent fit for the School of Law.

"Leila has been a breath of fresh air," said Stephen H. Legomsky, J.D., D.Phil., the Charles F. Nagel Professor of International and Comparative Law. "She has contributed immensely to our international program. Through her scholarly writing and skillful leadership in the International Law Association, Leila has acquired a global reputation for her pioneering work on the first-ever international criminal court."

Dynamic teacher

Though she abandoned a medical career, Wexler approaches the law like a surgeon cutting to the core of the issue. She also has a knack for absorbing vast quantities of material and consolidating historical perspectives, current happenings and legal analyses into heavily documented yet highly readable journal articles. Her research not only examines the evolution of international law, but also demonstrates current short-comings and anticipates the next logical phase in the law's evolution.

Wexler's main body of research centers on the war crimes prosecution of World War II French collaborators. Her numerous articles analyze the principles established during the 1945-46 prosecution of 22 Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. She also explores the implications for the international community of the ensuing French prosecutions of lower-ranked Vichy collaborators. Her legal articles on Vichy militia leader Paul Touvier, who was convicted in France on "crimes against humanity" charges in 1994, are considered the definitive works on the topic.

"The Touvier case is the last in a long string of decisions, including the Klaus Barbie case, by which the Criminal Chamber of the French Supreme Court has incorporated into French law the principles relating to the international crimes against humanity that were developed at Nuremberg," Wexler noted. "Touvier's trial not merely avenged his victims, it honored their losses and restored to their descendants a sense of dignity and faith in society. From an international perspective, it created a significant new body of law on the prosecution of crimes against humanity."

Wexler's work on crimes against humanity has gained international recognition, and was recently cited by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the decision involving Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb accused of murdering and torturing Muslims and Croats. This spring, she received the Treiman Fellowship from the law school to pursue her work on French war crimes trials and the International Criminal Court.

Chair of the American Branch of the International Law Association Committee on the Permanent International Criminal Court, Wexler has authored or edited several articles and two monographs on the court that make a strong case for its creation.

"While hundreds of treaties attempt to address international crime related to wars, human rights abuses and terrorism, the enforcement of these instruments has been practically nonexistent, and the actual criminal conduct covered in many cases has been unclear," Wexler observed. "The case for a permanent international criminal court with jurisdiction over serious violations of international criminal law is a compelling one. Legal accountability, if consistently enforced on an international scale, could lead to deterrence of crime, restoration for the victims of crime, retribution for criminal acts and upholding of the principles of justice and law."

Last summer, Wexler was a non-voting delegate to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, where a statute for the proposed court was adopted.

"The Rome conference was the culmination of a century-long effort to rein in international conflict through the establishment of a legal institution to mediate disputes, and, in the most egregious cases, to prosecute and punish offenders," Wexler said. "It was an extraordinary event involving representatives of 160 countries and observers from roughly 250 nongovernment agencies who struggled to define the parameters of an international institution to respond to the atrocities of the 20th century."

Historic achievement

Before the court officially can be created, much work remains to be done. "Sixty nation states must ratify the treaty, and the Preparatory Commission must, among other tasks, prepare draft texts concerning the rules of evidence and procedure, financial regulations and the relationship between the court and the United Nations," Wexler noted.

As she wrestles with complex international legal issues with her students, Wexler sees Washington University as a force for positive change toward a multicultural perspective and the fostering of a generation that might take a more open worldview. "International law is about the lives of people --the struggle of human beings to make the world safer and less chaotic," she said. "We need to look at the world not as scary and frightening, but as a wonderful, exciting place full of diversity and different views that can enrich our own understanding of this planet."