Prof. David Moore Brings Expertise in International and Foreign Relations Law

David Moore has taught law at the University of Chicago, George Washington University and the University
of Kentucky. Now he’s decided to come back to BYU, his alma mater, where he will continue teaching, writing, and raising his family.

 

Professor Moore specializes in international and foreign relations law. This year, he will teach public international law, civil procedure, and a legal scholarship seminar. Moore draws upon not only former teaching experience, but also on practical experience with the law. From 2007 to 2008, Moore clerked for Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Supreme Court. From 2000 to 2001, he clerked for Judge Alito on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. From 1996 to 2000, he was an Honor Program trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch.

 

“I study the role of international law in US courts, so it was helpful to see how the highest court in the land functions, and the sort of considerations that guide the Court and its individual Justices,” Moore said of his experience with Justice Alito. “It gave me insights that contribute to my analysis of Supreme Court decisions.”

 

Professor Moore’s research and writing have been published in a variety of law journals, including the Harvard, Northwestern, and George Washington law reviews. His most recent piece, “Law(Makers) of the Land: The Doctrine of Treaty Non-Self-Execution,” was published in the Harvard Law Review Forum in 2009. In this piece, Moore responds to a prior article in the Harvard Law Review and defends a broader interpretation of the doctrine of non-self-execution. (The term non-self-executing describes a treaty that, although binding on the US internationally, cannot be enforced in US courts until Congress passes a statute that implements the treaty’s provisions.)

 

Moore has also been working on another article, “Medellin, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Domestic Status of International Law,” which will be published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. This article, Moore says, “looks more broadly at what Medellin [the most important Supreme Court decision on treaties in almost 200 years] means for the domestic role of customary international law—another primary source of international law.”

 

Professor Moore met his wife Natalie at the presidential inauguration in 2001. They have four boys who are six, four, two, and nine months old. He enjoys spending time with family, traveling, running, cooking, yard work and ethnic food.

Written by Justin Forsyth