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Francis A Boyle

Professor

Biography

Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He received an AB (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a JD degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and AM and PhD degrees in Political Science from Harvard University. He practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould.

Professor Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the Palestinian Authority. He also represents two associations of citizens within Bosnia and was involved in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosević for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Over his career, he has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. From 1991-92, he served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations.

Professor Boyle served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as a consultant to the American Friends Service Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

Research Interests

Constitutional Law (U.S. Foreign Affairs); Human Rights; Jurisprudence; U.S. Foreign Affairs

Education

A.M., J.D., Ph.D. Harvard University
A.B. University of Chicago

Additional Campus Affiliations

Professor, College of Law
Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Professor, European Union Center
Professor, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Professor, Center for African Studies
Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor, Russian, East European and Eurasian Center

Recent Publications

Boyle, F. A. (2021). World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law. Lexington Books.

Boyle, F. A. (2019). The world court lawsuits by the republic of Iraq against the United States and the United Kingdom. Journal of Contemporary Iraq and the Arab World, 13(2-3), 205-216. https://doi.org/10.1386/jciaw_00008_1

Boyle, F. A. (2017). The criminal conspiracy of the bush administrations and the protection of Iraq’s children. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, 11(1-2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijcis.11.1-2.85_1

Boyle, F. A. (2016). Free Puerto Rico! Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans under International Law. Editorial Boriken, PR.

Boyle, F. A. (2016). The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka. (2 ed.) Clarity Press.

View all publications on Illinois Experts