Michael J. Bazyler

Professor of Law · Chapman University School of Law


Curriculum Vitae

Michael J. Bazyler

Professor of Law and
The “1939” Club Law Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
One University Drive
Orange , CA 92866
Office Phone: 714.628.2687
Cell Phone: 310.926.0149
E-Mail: bazyler@chapman.edu

 

 

EDUCATION

B.A., University of California , Los Angeles, 1974 (Political Science/International Relations)

Honors:

  • Summa Cum Laude graduate
  • Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
  • Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society
  • California State Scholar

J.D., University of Southern California Law School , 1978

Honors:

  • Articles Editor, Southern California Law Review
  • Law Scholarship recipient
  • Selected as one of three graduating law students for a federal appellate judicial clerkship

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2008 – Present (Tenured)

Chapman University School of Law

2008 – Present

Professor of Law, Emeritus, Whittier Law School and Director, Israel Summer Abroad Program

1982 –2008

Whittier Law School Professor of Law (Tenured since 1986)

International and Comparative law courses

Comparative Law; The Holocaust, Genocide and the Law; International Business Litigation; International Business Transactions; Public International Law; Trade Law of Emerging Markets (Chinese Law and Russian Law).

Other courses

Torts; Criminal Law; Legal Process; Civil Procedure

Visitor and Term Positions

Spring 2009

Loyola Law School , Los Angeles
Appointment as “ Visiting Professor of Law”
Course: Law and Genocide

Spring 2006 and Spring 2008

Research Collaborative to teach “Holocaust, Genocide and the Law” at University of Minnesota Law School in conjunction with Whittier Law School through video teleconference

Fall 2006

Research Fellowship, YAD VASHEM, Israel ( The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) and holder of the  Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Chair for the Study of Racism, Antisemitism and the Holocaust

Jan. 2000 – Present

Research Fellow, Holocaust Educational Trust, London , England

Summer 2005

University of Haifa School of Law , Israel
Appointment as “Visiting Professor of Law” to teach “Holocaust, Genocide and the Law” to Israeli law students at Haifa 2005 Summer Session

Winter 2003, Winter 2004 and Winter 2008

Southern Cross University School of Law, Lismore, N.S.W., Australia
Appointment as “Visiting Professor of Law” to teach “Holocaust, Genocide and the Law” to Australian and American law students at Byron Bay 2003 Summer Session

Spring 2003

Fellow, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.

Spring 2002

Brooklyn Law School
New York , N.Y.
Appointment as “Visiting Professor of Law”
Courses: Torts; Holocaust and the Law

Summer 2001

Radzyner School of Law
Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlyia , Israel
Appointment as “Visiting Professor of Law”
Courses: Holocaust and the Law; International Business Transactions

Spring 2001

Chapman University School of Law
Appointment as “Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law”
Courses: Holocaust and the Law, Torts

1994 – 2000

Fellow, Harvard University Russian Research Center

1994 – 1996

Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School , East Asian Legal Studies
(Spring semesters only)

Spring 1994

Fellow, Institute for State Development and Legislation, Minsk , Belarus and consultant to Belarus Parliament to help draft free speech legislation [appointment through ABA Central and East European Law Initiative Program (CEELI)]

European Humanities University , Minsk , Belarus
Appointment as “Visiting Professor of Law ”
Course: Comparative Law

Summer 2000, 1997, 1994, 1989, 1988

University of San Diego School of Law Summer Abroad

 

 

Russia/Poland Program - Course: East-West Trade Law
Oxford Program - Course: Public International Law (Summer 2000)

1981 – 1982

Loyola Law School , Los Angeles
Appointment as “ Visiting Assistant Professor of Law”
Courses: Torts; Criminal Law

1979 – 1981

Litigation Associate, Morrison & Foerster, Los Angeles office

1978 – 1979

Law Clerk to Honorable Ozell M. Trask, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

PUBLICATIONS

Published Books

Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America’s Courts

( New York : N.Y.U. Press 2003; paperback edition, 2005)
(book analyzes the Holocaust restitution movement in the United States , including claims against the Swiss banks, German industry, European insurance companies and claims of Nazi-stolen art; and proposes a theory of restitution for historical wrongs)
[book cited by U.S. Supreme Court in AIA v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396 (2003) and reviewed in Harvard Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times (London), and other publications]

Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and Its Legacy

( New York : NYU Press 2006, paperback edition, 2007) Michael J. Bazyler and Roger P. Alford, Editors
(collection of essays on various aspects of the Holocaust restitution movement)

Books in Progress

The Holocaust, Genocide Justice:
A Study of Post-Holocaust Law

Comparative Law: Global Legal Traditions in the 21st Century

(casebook with co-authors Russell Miller, Peter Yu & Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, to be published by LexisNexis)

Chapters in Books

Foreword in The Raphael Lemkin’s Dossier On the Armenian Genocide (CAR 2008).

“The Role of the Soviet Union at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg” chapter in Die Nürnberger Prozesse: Völkerstrafrecht seit 1945 / The Nuremberg Trials: International Criminal Law Since 1945 (Herbert R Reginbogin, Christoph J Safferling, und Walter R Hippel, editors (Kluwer 2006).

“The Gray Zones of Holocaust Restitution: American Justice and Holocaust Morality” chapter in Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath, Jonathan Petropoulos & John K. Roth ( Oxford , UK : Berghahn Books 2005).

“The Holocaust on Trial: David Irving vs. Penguin Books Ltd. and Deborah Lipstadt” chapter in Jews on Trial, Robert Garber, Editor (Ktav Publishing House 2005).

“Lex Americana : Holocaust Litigation in American Courts As A Model for Remedial Action for Genocide and Other Human Massive Rights Abuses” chapter in Enteignet – Vetrieben – Ermordet :Beiträge zur Genozidforschung [Expropriated - Expelled – Killed: Contributions to Genocide Studies], DominikSchaller, Rupert Boyadjian, Vivianne Mountain & Hanno Scholtz, Editors ( Zurich : Chronos Verlag 2004) (book published in Switzerland ).

“What Can Be Done About Genocide: American Civil Justice As A Model For Remedial Action,” chapter in Will Genocide Ever End?, John K. Roth, Carol Ritter and James Smith, Editors ( St. Paul , MN : Paragon Press 2002, paperback edition 2007).

“Holocaust Restitution In the United States : A Search For Justice” chapter in Remembering For the Future: The Holocaust In An Age of Genocide, John K. Roth and Elizabeth Maxwell, Editors. ( London : Palgrave 2001).

Articles: International Human Rights Law

Law Reviews

“Trading With the Enemy: Holocaust Restitution, The United States Government, and American Industry,” 28 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 683 (2003) (co-author with Amber L. Fitzgerald).

“Holocaust Restitution in Comparative Perspective,” 20 Berkeley Journal of International Law 101 (2001).

“www.swissbankclaims.com: The Legality and Morality of the Holocaust-Era Restitution Settlement with the Swiss Banks,” 25 Fordham Journal of International Law 64 (2001).

“ Nuremberg in America : Litigating The Holocaust in United States Courts,” 34 University of Richmond Law Review 1 (2000). [234-page study of the Holocaust restitution movement in the United States - Article cited in various court decisions, including in AIA v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396 (2003). ]

“Litigating the Holocaust,”33 University Of Richmond Law Review 601 (1999).

“Reexamining the Doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention in Light of the Atrocities in Kampuchea and Ethiopia ,” 23 Stanford Journal of International Law 547 (1987) [Article is excerpted in various international law casebooks].

“Abolishing the Act of State Doctrine,” 134 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 325 (1986) [Article is cited in various international law casebooks].

“Capturing Terrorists in the 'Wild Blue Yonder': International Law and the Achille Lauro and Libyan Aircraft Incidents,” 8 Whittier Law Review 245 (1986).

“Litigating the International Law of Human Rights: A 'How To' Approach,” 7 Whittier Law Review 713 (1985) [reprinted in Redden's Modern Legal Systems Encyclopedia]

Other Publications: International Human Rights Law

“In the Footsteps of Raphael Lemkin,” 2 Genocide Studies and Prevention 51 (Spring 2007).

“Contemporary Legal Lessons from the Holocaust,” 19 Jewish Political Studies Review 15 (Spring 2007).

“Suing Hitler’s Willing Business Partners: American Justice and Holocaust Morality,” 16 Jewish Political Studies Review 3 (Fall 2004)

Encyclopedia of Genocide , Contributing Editor Israel Charny, Executive Editor, ( Santa Barbara , CA : ABC-CLIO 2000) (Second Edition is forthcoming)

“Litigating the International Law of Human Rights in the United States Courts: Siderman v.Republic of Argentina ,” 31 International Practitioner's Notebook 1 (1985).

Articles: Comparative Law: Russian/Soviet and East European Law

Law Reviews

“Television and the Law in the Soviet Union ,” 11 Loyola Entertainment Law Journal 293 (1991) (co-author).

“Soviet Family Law,” 39 Kansas Law Review 125 (1990).

“Making Profits From Perestroika: Soviet Economic Reform and New Trade Opportunities in the Gorbachev Era,” 11 Whittier Law Review 323 (1989).

“The Rights of Women in the Soviet Union ,” 9 Whittier Law Review 423 (1988).

Other Publications: Comparative Law, Russian/Soviet and East European Law

“Mass Media and the Law in Belarus ,” Survey of East European Law , Vol. 5, No. 6 (1994) (co-author).

“Privatization of Television in Russia : Opportunities for Western Investment,” Butterworth's Central and East European Business Law Bulletin (London, Dec. 1993).

“Television and the Law in Post-Soviet Russia,” Los Angeles Lawyer (September 1994)(cover story).

“Perestroika and Capitalism: USSR Joint Venture Law,” California State Bar International Law Newsletter , Vol. 1, no. 3, p. 4 (1988).

“Profiting from Perestroika,” The Rock, Vol. 60, no. 1, p. 10 (1988).

Article: Tort Law

“The Duty to Provide Adequate Protection: Landowners' Liability for Failure to Protect Patrons from Criminal Attack,” 21 Arizona Law Review 727 (1979).

Book Reviews

Book Review, “Hazard's Recollections of a Pioneering Sovietologist,” 23 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 505 (1985).

Book Review, “Ioffe & Maggs' Soviet Law in Theory and Practice,” 79 Northwestern Law Review 847 (1984).

Other Writings and Media Appearances

Throughout my years of teaching, I have written numerous Op/Ed pieces concerning international human rights law, international litigation, Soviet/Russian law, and international trade law, which have been published in:

  • The Baltimore Sun
  • The Los Angeles Times
  • The Buffalo News
  • The Orange County Register
  • The Chicago Tribune
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • The Jerusalem Post
  • The San Francisco Examiner
  • The Los Angeles Daily Journal
  • The San Diego Union-Tribune
  • The Los Angeles Daily News
  • The Wall Street Journal (Asian Edition)
  • The Los Angeles Herald Examiner
  • The Wall Street Journal - Europe

I have also appeared, among others, on CNN, the BBC, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Australian Broadcasting Company Radio, and Russian and Belarus radio and television.

Significant Papers Presented

"Genocide Restitution Litigation: Comparative Analysis of Armenian Genocide Victims and Other Victim Groups," paper presented at "Armenian Genocide and International Law" conference, USC Institute of Armenian Studies , September 9, 2007

"Post-War Trials, the Holocaust and the Current Rules of International Criminal Justice" paper presented at Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority), Jerusalem conference "Post-War Trials and the Holocaust: Representation, Awareness and Historiography," December 19-21, 2006

"The Morality and Immorality of Holocaust Restitution," Annual Feibel Family Lecture on Law and Judaism Presenter at Michael E. Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University , March 2, 2006

"Pursuing Human Dignity: The Legacies of Nuremberg for International Law, Human Rights, and Education" paper presented at Harvard Law School conference commemorating 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, November 3, 2005

"The Role of the Soviet Union in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ," Nuremberg Trials Conference, sponsored by Touro Law School , Nuremberg , Germany , July 14-16, 2005 .

"Profiting from the Holocaust and the Search for Justice: Lessons for the African-American Reparations Movement," paper presented at  "Restitution and Reconciliation in International Perspective" conference at Brown University,March 20, 2005  (portions of paper incorporated in the  Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice Report ( http://brown.edu/Research/Slavery_Justice/documents/SlaveryAndJustice.pdf)  

“The Morality and Immorality of Holocaust Restitution,” paper presented at Fordham Law School , Conference on Holocaust Restitution: Reconciling Moral Imperatives with Legal Initiatives and Diplomacy, November 1, 2001 .

“Holocaust Restitution in Comparative Perspective,” paper presented at Association of Genocide Scholars Bi-Annual Conference - University of Minnesota , June 12, 2001 .

“Trading with the Enemy: Holocaust Restitution and American Industry,” paper presented at Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley , Stefan A. Riesenfeld Symposium 2001, Fifty Years In the Making: World War II Reparation and Restitution Claims, March 9, 2001.

“Holocaust Restitution Litigation in the United States : A Triumph of American Justice,” paper presented at U.C.L.A. Conference on Confronting the Past: Memory, Identity, and Society, February 4, 2001 .

“Litigating the Holocaust,” Seventh Annual Austin Owen Lecture, University of Richmond School of Law, April 13, 1999 .

“Litigating International Human Rights Law in U.S. Courts,” paper presented at the Notre Dame Law School Human Rights Conference, April 10, 1997 .

“Humanitarian Intervention and the Case of Bosnia,” paper presented at the Whittier Eleventh Annual International Law Symposium on “War Crimes and Other Human Rights Abuses in the Former Yugoslavia,” July 9, 1994.

“Legal Aspects Of Doing Business in the New Russia .” Paper presented at the Harvard Law School International Law Symposium, May 1, 1993 .

“Soviet Legal Reform,” paper presented at the UCLA Law School and the Rand/UCLA Center for Soviet Studies, October 30-31, 1990 .

“The Success of Glasnost And Failure of Perestroika,” paper presented at the University of California , Santa Barbara “Forum on New Europe ,” July 11, 1990 .

“Recent Reforms in Eastern European Trade,” paper presented at the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting, April 10, 1989 .

“Women's Rights in the Soviet Union,” paper presented at the Whittier Fourth Annual International Law Symposium on “Women's Rights and International Law '87,” April 4, 1987.

“The Rights of Soviet Emigres to Recover Under the Soviet Testamentary System,” paper presented at the Western Slavic Association meeting of the American Association For the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Portland , Oregon , March 26, 1986 .

“Capturing and Prosecuting Aerial Terrorists,” paper presented at the Whittier Third International Law Symposium on “Terrorism and International Law '86,” April 18, 1986 .

“Domestic Legal Remedies Under International Law for the Armenian Genocide,” paper presented at the Armenian Genocide Conference, UCLA, May 12, 1985 .

“The International Bill of Human Rights,” paper presented at the Pacific International Human Rights Conference, Sacramento , California , April 20, 1985 .

“Litigating the International Law of Human Rights in United States Courts,” paper presented at the Whittier Second Annual International Law Conference on “Human Rights and International Law '85,” April 13, 1985.

I have also participated in numerous conferences over the years delivering other papers on international human rights law, legal aspects of the Holocaust and its aftermath, legal remedies for historical abuses (including African-American slavery and the Armenian genocide), Soviet/Russian law and Chinese law.

CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY

Expert witness before the Government Reform Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing on Holocaust-era insurance, September 16,2003 . Testimony located at:

http://michaelbazyler.com/downloads/congressional-testimony-bazyler-9-13-03.pdf

ACTIVITIES

Lead co-counsel, Siderman de Blake v. Republic of Argentin a , the first U.S. case to hold a foreign nation responsible for torture committed on foreign soil. My work on the case was profiled in The American Lawyer, November, 1996, p. 33.

I have also participated as co-counsel or consultant in a number of international human rights lawsuits, including litigation against former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, litigation against Japan and Japanese companies for WWII slave labor, and in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain.

I have also acted as lead defense co-counsel in various lawsuits filed against the Republic of Italy in federal courts in California and Nevada .

In 2005, I was a lead co-organizer of two conferences held to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials: in New York at Cardozo Law School , March 2005; and in Nuremberg , Germany in Courtroom 600 of the Palace of Justice , the original location of the Nuremberg Trials, July 2005.

Organizer of Annual Whittier International Law Symposium, 1983 - 1999, 2001 [the only international law symposium held annually by a California law school ]

Vice-President, The “1939" Club, an organization of Holocaust survivors and their children, headquartered in Southern California

Former Trustee, World Affairs Council Of Orange County

Former Chair, REDRESS-USA, a torture victims’ human rights organization headquartered in London , U.K.

Former Board Member, L.A.-St. Petersburg Sister City Program

Former Co–Chair and Co-Founder, Amnesty International Legal Support Network

Former Board Member, Executive Committee, International Law Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association

Former Vice President ( Southern California ), California-Russia Trade Association

Lecturer to visiting Russian delegations on the subject of the “Fundamentals of the American Legal System,” 1991-93

I have led legal study tours, serving as education leader, to: Moscow , Leningrad , Tbilisi , Yerevan , and Baku , all in the former Soviet Union ; and to Greece .

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Russian (fluent), Polish (comprehension)