Michael Bazyler

Michael Bazyler is professor of law and the 1939 Law Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies. He is holder of previous fellowships at Harvard Law School and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In fall 2006, he was a Research Fellow at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority of Israel) and the holder of the Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Chair for the Study of Racism, Antisemitism and the Holocaust. Before joining Chapman in 2008, he was a professor for 25 years at Whittier Law School. He received his B.A. from UCLA and his JD from USC.

Professor Bazyler is the author of seven books and more than two dozen law review articles, book chapters and essays on subjects covering Law and the Holocaust, restitution following genocide and other mass atrocities, public international law, international human rights law, and international trade law and comparative law. His work has been published in such journals as The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Kansas Law Review, Arizona Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, University of Richmond Law Review, Stanford Journal of International Law, Berkeley Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and Fordham Journal of International Law.

Over his 30-plus years teaching law, Professor Bazyler has been a visiting professor at various law schools in the United States, Australia, Russia, Belarus and Israel, teaching Comparative Law, Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Business Litigation, International Business Transactions, Criminal Law, Torts, and a course he created entitled Holocaust, Genocide and the Law.

In spring 2007, Professor Bazyler held the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, teaching Comparative Law and Holocaust, Genocide and the Law. He is a leading authority on the use of American and European courts to redress genocide and other historical wrongs. Professor Bazyler co-authored Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust (New York University Press, 2014, softcover 2015) with Frank M. Tuerkheimer, reviewed in the New York Review of Books. His book, Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America's Courts (New York University Press, 2003, softcover 2005), was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and reviewed in the Harvard Law Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times (London), and The Economist. He is a contributor of chapters to various books on genocide and the law, and the co-editor/author with Roger Alford of Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and Its Legacy (New York University Press, 2006; softcover 2007).

His book, Holocaust, Genocide and the Law: A Quest for Justice in a Post-Holocaust World (Oxford University Press) is a winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award.  His writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has testified in Congress before the House Reform Committee on the subject of Holocaust restitution. He has also been interviewed by CNN, 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, ABC News, Voice of America, the Australian Broadcasting Company, National Public Radio and the BBC. Bazyler has also delivered the Austin Owen Annual Lecture at the University of Richmond, the Feibel Family Annual Lecture at Ohio State University and the Einspruch Annual Lecture at the University of Texas, Dallas.

He is presently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Englangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

Courses Taught: Family Law, Ukraine War Law Practicum: Assisting Victims, Ukraine War Law Practicum: Prosecuting Perpetrators, Advanced Seminar: The Holocaust, Genocide and the Law.