Susan Farbstein

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law

Clinical Director, Human Rights Program

Research Interests

• Transitional Justice and Societies in Transition
• Human Rights in Southern Africa
• Clinical Legal Education and Pedagogy
• Community Lawyering in the International Context
• Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts, including under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act

Subject Areas for Accepting Press Inquiries

• Clinical Legal Education and Pedagogy
• Human Rights in Southern Africa
• Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts, including under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act
• Transitional Justice and Societies in Transition

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

• Human Rights in Southern Africa
• Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts, including under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act
• Transitional Justice and Societies in Transition

Education

• Princeton University A.B. 2000, International Affairs and Public Policy
• University of Cambridge M.Phil 2001, International Relations
• Harvard Law School J.D. 2004

Appointments

• Clinical Litigation Fellow, 2008
• Lecturer on Law, 2009
• Clinical Instructor, 2010
• Associate Clinical Director, Human Rights Program, 2011
• Assistant Clinical Professor, 2012
• Clinical Director, Human Rights Program, 2012

Biographical Statement

Susan Farbstein's current work focuses on Alien Tort Statute litigation, transitional justice, and South Africa. She is co-counsel in In re South African Apartheid Litigation, a suit against major multinational corporations for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by the apartheid state. She is also co-counsel in Mamani v. Sanchez de Lozada, which brings claims against the former Bolivian president and defense minister related to a 2003 civilian massacre. She participated in litigating Wiwa v. Shell, which charged Shell with complicity in the torture and killing of non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s and successfully settled in 2009. For her work as a member of the Wiwa legal team, Farbstein was honored as finalist for the 2010 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. She has authored numerous amicus curiae briefs, including to the Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (on behalf of professors of legal history), Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman (on behalf of international law scholars), and Samantar v. Yousuf (on behalf of human rights organizations). Farbstein has worked on transitional justice issues in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Burma, and Thailand. She has an interest in clinical pedagogy and, in 2011-2012, was a recipient of the Harvard President's Innovation Fund for Faculty Grant for her clinical work. Before joining the Human Rights Program, Farbstein worked at the Cape Town office of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Prior to that, she clerked for the Honorable Morris E. Lasker of the Southern District of New York. She was an intern with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has provided research assistance to the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Human Rights First.

Other Information

2011-2012 Faculty Disclosures re: Related Outside Interests and Activities

Additional Information

Professor Farbstein will co-teach, with Clinical Professor Tyler Giannini, the seminar Advanced Skills Training for Human Rights Advocacy in the Fall 2012 term. She will also co-teach, with Clinical Professor Tyler Giannini, the seminar Human Rights Advocacy and Litigation in the Spring 2013 term. She has previously taught courses on Transitional Justice in Southern Africa, Alien Tort Statute Litigation, and Human Rights in Contemporary South Africa.

Representative Publications

• Farbstein, Susan. "Liability for Harms," The New York Times, February 28, 2012, Room for Debate: Corporate Rights and Human Rights.
  
• Giannini, Tyler & Susan Farbstein. "Corporate Accountability in Conflict Zones: How Kiobel Undermines the Nuremberg Legacy and Modern Human Rights," 52 Harvard International Law Journal Online 119 (2010).
  
• Farbstein, Susan. Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Zimbabwe: Options for Constitutional Protection (Harvard Law School, International Human Rights Clinic 2009).
  
• Prosecuting Apartheid-Era Crimes? A South African Dialogue on Justice (Tyler Giannini, Susan Farbstein, Samantha Bent & Miles Jackson eds., Harvard University Press 2009).
  
• Farbstein, Susan. The Effectiveness of the Exercise of Jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court: The Issue of Complementarity (European Center for Minority Issues 2001).
  

Bibliography

View bibliography