John Packer
Professor John Packer is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) at the University of Ottawa. He was appointed the Inaugural Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution in April 2018.
Prof. Packer previously held academic positions at the University of Essex where he was the Director of the world-renowned Human Rights Centre and at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He has held Fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities and lectured at universities and professional institutions around the world. He has been widely published and contributes to the editing of a number of scholarly journals. He also serves on the boards of a number of NGOs and is a Member of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Shared Societies Project of the Club de Madrid comprising almost 100 former Heads of State or Government of democracies.
Prof. Packer is also an experienced practitioner bringing to the University of Ottawa some 20 years working for inter-governmental organizations, including in Geneva for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Labour Organisation, and for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights investigating serious human rights violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma/Myanmar, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, the use of forensic sciences, the use of civil defense forces, and the independence of judges and lawyers throughout the world. From 1995 to 2004, he was Senior Legal Adviser and then the first Director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague working across Central and Eastern Europe and throughout the former Soviet Union. For the last two years, Prof. Packer was a Constitutions and Process Design Expert on the United Nation’s Standby Team of Mediation Experts attached to the Department of Political Affairs, advising in numerous peace processes and political transitions around the world focusing on conflict prevention and resolution, diversity management, constitutional and legal reform, and the protection of human rights including minorities.
Prof. Packer’s strength in the practice of international law and relations underpins his vision for applied research in public policy and a practice-orientation in the activities of the HRREC. He intends to build on the HRREC’s record of achievement, emphasising know-how and skills for students and professionals interested in the effective realisation of human rights throughout Canada and the world.
Padideh Ala'i
Padideh Ala’i is a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). She specializes in international economic law, law of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and comparative legal traditions. She teaches international trade law and comparative law. Professor Alai’s scholarship has concentrated on the history of free trade, transparency obligations of the WTO and their implications on internal domestic transparency, universalizing the administrative state through the multilateral trading system, as well as good governance and evolution of international anti-corruption norms.
In August 2017, Professor Ala’i was appointed Director of International and Comparative Legal Studies and Faculty Director of the International Legal Studies Program (ILSP). In her new role, she promotes, represents, and coordinates the law school’s renowned international programs that have been consistently ranked among some of the most prestigious programs in the United States.
Professor Ala’i is also the Director of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program at WCL, a Fulbright program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. The Program brings accomplished mid-career professionals from developing countries to the U.S for 10 months of non-degree study and professional development in the general field of law and human rights. In addition, since 2014, she has led the interdisciplinary Trade, Investment and Development Program (TID) that provides resources to students interested in linkage between trade and other disciplines such as intellectual property, environment, investment, labor and human rights.
Professor Ala’i currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). She is Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and Member of the Academic Board of the European Law Students’ Association/World Trade Organization Moot Court Competition. She is also Chair of the Organizing Committee of Wenger Family Lecture Series on International Trade Law at WCL, an endowment dedicated exclusively to international trade law education and training of young trade lawyers at WCL. She previously served as Co-Chair of the International Economic Law Group (IELG) of American Society of International Law (ASIL) and Co-Chair of the AALS Section on Comparative Law.
Professor Ala’i received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988. Prior to joining the faculty of WCL, from 1988-1997, she was in private practice, representing governments from developing countries, as well as foreign companies in the United States. At Reichler, Milton & Medel (merged subsequently with Foley Hoag), from 1991-1997, she was part of the legal team representing the Government of the Philippines in international commercial arbitration and U.S. court litigation against Westinghouse Corporation for breach of contract and bribery of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. She also represented governments of Guyana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Philippines in negotiations with foreign investors, including in the context of privatization efforts and legal reforms proposed by the World Bank. During her tenure at Jones Day from 1988-1991, she specialized in corporate and international banking practice, advising foreign companies with respect to their U.S. banking-related activities, and representing such companies before regulatory banking agencies, specifically the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Her recent publications include Research Handbook on Transparency (eds. with Robert Vaughn, Edward Elgar Publishing), “Transparency in International Economic Relations and the Role of the WTO” in Research Handbook on Transparency (with Matthew D’Orsi, Edward Elgar Publishing), “Climate Change Innovation, Products and Services Under the GATT/WTO System” in Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Climate Change (with David Gantz, Edward Elgar Publishing), and “Civil Consequences of Corruption in International Commercial Contracts” in American Journal of Comparative Law.
