Mark A. Drumbl

Mark A. Drumbl serves as the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he also directs the Transnational Law Institute. An internationally recognized scholar, he has held visiting appointments at numerous prestigious institutions worldwide including Oxford University, Université de Paris II, Free University of Amsterdam, and University of Sydney. His academic journey includes degrees from McGill University (BA), Institut d'études politiques de Paris (MA), University of Toronto (JD), and Columbia University (LLM, SJD).

Professor Drumbl's research spans international law, transnational legal processes, mass violence and human rights, with particular expertise in child soldiers, post-conflict justice, and international criminal law. His work challenges conventional wisdom in these fields, most notably through his groundbreaking book Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2012). His scholarly output demonstrates remarkable breadth, addressing topics from the aesthetics of atrocity prosecutions to the moral responsibility of scientists who develop weapons.

His recent publications reveal evolving research trajectories, with 2024-2025 seeing multiple significant releases including Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (Oxford University Press, 2024), Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions (Brill Publishers, 2024), and the forthcoming Children and Violence (Routledge, 2025). These works collectively examine agency, representation, and justice mechanisms across diverse contexts of violence.

• 2007 Book of the Year Award by International Association of Criminal Law
• Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Contribution to Creative Scholarship (2009)
• Association of American Law Schools Outstanding Scholarly Papers Prize

Professor Drumbl's practical engagement with international justice is substantial, having served as defense counsel in Rwandan genocide trials, co-authored amicus briefs for the International Criminal Court, and provided expert testimony to the United Nations. He has organized major international conferences, including one at Washington and Lee on children implicated in violent situations that led to the 2025 Children and Violence publication. His current research projects explore child soldiers in the Korean War, the moral responsibility of scientists through the case of Fritz Haber, and the future of international criminal law.