Amalia Kessler

Amalia Kessler is the Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies at Stanford Law School and holds a courtesy appointment with the Stanford History Department. She directs the Stanford Center for Law and History and has previously served as the Jean-Paul Gimon Director of the France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

Education:

• BA, Harvard University (1994)
• MA, Stanford University (1996)
• JD, Yale Law School (1999)
• PhD in European History, Stanford University (2001)

Her research examines the evolution of commercial law, civil procedure, and the intersections between law, markets, and dispute resolution, with a focus on the historical forces shaping modern capitalism. She is currently researching the public roots of private arbitration in the U.S. legal system.

Scientific Awards:

• American Society for Legal History’s John Phillip Reid Book Award (2018)
• American Historical Association’s J. Russell Major Prize (2008)
• Hessel Yntema Prize (2011)
• Surrency Prize (2005)

Before joining Stanford in 2003, she was a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the Second Circuit. She has held visiting professorships at Yale Law School, Tel Aviv University Law School, Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), and École des hautes études en sciences sociales.