Harold Koh | |
|---|---|
| 고홍주 | |
 Koh in 2010 | |
| 22ndLegal Adviser of the Department of State | |
| In office June 25, 2009 – January 22, 2013 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | John B. Bellinger III |
| Succeeded by | Brian Egan |
| 15thDean of Yale Law School | |
| In office July 1, 2004 – March 23, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Anthony T. Kronman |
| Succeeded by | Kate Stith (acting) |
| 7thAssistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor | |
| In office November 13, 1998 – January 20, 2001 | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | John Shattuck |
| Succeeded by | Lorne Craner |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-12-08)December 8, 1954 (age 70) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Mary-Christy Fisher |
| Relations | Howard Koh (brother) Daniel Koh (nephew) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,JD) Magdalen College, Oxford (MA) |
| Awards | Marshall Scholarship (1977) American Philosophical Society (2007) Sterling Professor (2013) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 고홍주 |
| Hanja | 高洪株 |
| RR | Go Hongju |
| MR | Ko Hongju |
Harold Hongju Koh (born December 8, 1954) is an American diplomat, lawyer, legal scholar, politician, and writer. Except for his periods of government service, he has taught atYale Law School from 1985 to the present, including as the law school's 15th Dean from 2004 to 2009, and currently as aSterling Professor ofinternational law. From 1998 to 2001, he served as theAssistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under PresidentBill Clinton. From 2009 to 2013, he served as thelegal adviser of the Department of State in theObama administration. He has published more than ten books on topics including international law, the U.S. Constitution, and international relations. He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2007.[1]
Koh was born inBoston, Massachusetts. His parents grew up inKorea under Japanese rule in an area that later became part ofNorth Korea. He has described his family thus:
They grew up under Japanese colonial rule, forbidden to speak Korean or even to use their Korean names. When their country was divided after World War II, my mother and her family were trapped in North Korea. In desperation, they hiked for days to the border to be picked up and were brought back toSeoul. But even there, they lived under dictatorship. For less than a year in the 1960s, (South) Korea enjoyed democracy. My father joined the diplomatic corps. But one day, tanks rolled and acoup d'état toppled the government, leaving us to grow up in America.[2]
After the coup, Koh's father, legal scholar and diplomat Kwang Lim Koh, was grantedasylum in the United States.[3] He moved toNew Haven, Connecticut, with his family and took a teaching position at Yale.[3] His wife, Hesung Chun Koh (Harold Koh's mother), had a Ph.D. insociology and taught at Yale as well—they were the firstAsian Americans to teach there.[4]
Harold was struck bypolio at age six; he went through "two operations, leg braces, and endless rehabilitation" and as a result still walks with a limp.[3][5]
Koh has six siblings.Howard Koh—aHarvard University public health professor and former Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner—previously served as theUnited States Assistant Secretary for Health in theObama administration.[6] His sister Jean Koh Peters also teaches atYale Law School.[7]
Koh's wife, Mary-Christy Fisher, is an attorney employed by the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center; they have two children.[8]
Koh graduated in 1971 from theHopkins School inNew Haven, then graduatedsumma cum laude andPhi Beta Kappa fromHarvard University in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in government, before studying atOxford University as aMarshall Scholar.[9] He later earned aJuris Doctor fromHarvard Law School in 1980, where he was an editor of theHarvard Law Review and graduatedcum laude.[10][11]
In June 2024, Koh received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Toronto in recognition of his commitment to the public interest and his advocacy for the rule of law and human rights.[12]
After law school, Koh was alaw clerk for JudgeMalcolm Richard Wilkey of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1980 to 1981 and forU.S. Supreme Court justiceHarry Blackmun 1981 to 1982. In 1982 and 1983, he worked as an associate atCovington & Burling. From 1983 to 1985, Koh worked as an attorney-adviser to theOffice of Legal Counsel (OLC) in theUnited States Department of Justice during theReagan Administration.[10]
He joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1985.[10] His students have includedJohn Yoo, with whom he co-authored a paper on "Dollar Diplomacy/Dollar Defense: The Fabric of Economics and National Security Law." Since 1993 he has been theGerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law; he became the law school's 15th dean in 2004. From 1985 to 1991, Koh largely devoted himself to writing and teaching. A notable paper Koh wrote was a November 1990 legal brief challengingthe first president Bush's contention that he could fight theGulf War on his own authority. Koh argued that "theConstitution requires the president to 'consult withCongress and receive its affirmative authorization — not merely present it withfaits accomplis — before engaging in war.'"[13]
In 1992–93, he led a group of Yale students andhuman rights lawyers in litigation against the United States government to free Haitian refugees interned atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba. As chronicled inBrandt Goldstein's book,Storming the Court (Scribner 2005), Koh and the plaintiffs prevailed in the case,Haitian Centers Council v. Sale, and the Haitians were released in the spring of 1993. At the same time, Koh and his team of law students argued a related caseSale v. Haitian Centers Council (1993) before theU.S. Supreme Court but the court ruled against them on an 8–1 vote.
Koh is the author of nine books, includingThe National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair (Yale University Press,1990);Transnational Legal Problems (withHarry Steiner andDetlev Vagts,Foundation Press, 1994);Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights (withRonald C. Slye, Yale University Press, 1999);Transnational Litigation in United States Courts (Foundation Press, 2008); andThe National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century (Yale University Press, 2024). He has also written over 175 law review articles and legal editorials.[14] He is a prominent advocate of human rights andcivil rights; he has argued and written briefs on a wide number of cases before U.S. appellate courts, and has testified before theU.S. Congress more than a dozen times. He has received numerous awards, medals, and honorary degrees.[10]
BloggerDavid Lat and George Mason professorDavid Bernstein (contributing to theVolokh Conspiracy), have described Koh as a "highly partisan Democrat" and claim that he has politically polarized Yale Law School during his tenure as dean.[15][16] Other observers countered that during his tenure prominent conservatives have been appointed to the Yale Law School faculty, and noted that Koh served in both Republican (Reagan) and Democratic (Clinton) administrations. A group of Yale Conservative Law Students offered a vigorous defense of Koh, noting that "Dean Koh has been very supportive of conservative students and conservative student organizations."[17][citation needed]
They concluded that "Dean Koh is one of the brightest legal minds of his generation, a credit to the profession we look forward to joining, and an able and effective public servant."[17][dead link][citation needed] On May 4, 2010, the Friends of the Law Library of the Library of Congress presented Koh with their annual award named forGeorge W. Wickersham.[citation needed]
Koh was elected to theAmerican Law Institute in 1992 and was elected to the ALI Council in 2007.[18][19] He stepped down from the Council when he worked for the Obama administration, but was re-elected to Council when he ended his tenure with the State Department and returned to Yale.[20] He currently serves as a Counselor on the Restatement Fourth, the Foreign Relations Law of the United States,[21] and previously served as an Adviser on the Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure project.
On March 23, 2009, the White House announced Koh's nomination as Legal Adviser to the State Department in the Obama administration, the senior legal adviser toSecretary of StateHillary Clinton. His nomination was generally supported in the Senate and among legal colleagues. The nomination drew criticism from some conservative commentators for his views on international law and its use in American legal analysis and jurisprudence,[22] while drawing support from other conservatives such asTed Olson andKenneth Starr as well asForbes magazine.[23][24][25]
Koh has written in support of the practice of using tenets of international law and foreign legal precedent to inform the deliberative process of judicial decision making in the United States, and has described what he has called "transnational jurisprudence" as essential to maintaining a well-ordered international legal system. Arguing that "concepts like liberty, equality and privacy are not exclusively American constitutional ideas but, rather, part and parcel of the global human rights movement"[26] Koh has traced the influence of decisions from foreign courts throughout the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and the American court system.[27]
Critics of this approach argue that citing foreign decisions as legalprecedents threatens American sovereignty and "lends itself to manipulation."[28] Other commentators have observed that the "use of such nonbinding sources to bolster legal arguments is a central and uncontroversial tenet of the American judicial process."[29][30]
On May 12, 2009, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted 12–5 in favor of Koh.[31] After a hold was placed on his nomination, Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid announced on June 22, 2009, that he would invokecloture on the nomination. On June 24, 2009, the Senate voted 65–31 to end debate on the nomination, paving the way for a full Senate vote the following day.[32] The following day, Koh was confirmed by the Senate in a 62–35 vote.[33] While working in government, Koh took a leave of absence from Yale Law School.
In a March 2010 speech, Koh voiced his strong support for the legality oftargeted killing byaerial drone strikes inPakistan,Yemen, and other countries included by the U.S. government as being within the scope of thewar on terror. The State Department's legal adviser said that "U.S. targeting practices, including lethal operations conducted with the use ofunmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)", which the Obama administration has leaned on heavily in its efforts to eliminateal-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Asia, "comply with all applicable law, including thelaws of war", citing the principles ofdistinction andproportionality. He said that the U.S. adheres to these standards, and takes great care in the "planning and execution to ensure that only legitimate objectives are targeted, and thatcollateral damage is kept to a minimum."[34]
He said the U.S. is in "an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, theTaliban, and the associated forces", and therefore has the lawful right touse force to protect its citizens "consistent with itsinherent right to self-defense" underinternational law.[35][36] Koh identified three elements that the U.S. considers when determining whether to authorize a specific targeted drone killing:
He also said that the drone strikes against al-Qaeda and its allies were lawful targeted killing, as part of the military action authorized by Congress, and notassassination, which is banned byexecutive order.[37][38] Under domestic law, U.S. targeted killings against 9/11-related entities is authorized by theAuthorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists.[37][39] The speech earned praise from the editorial board ofThe Wall Street Journal.[40]
Koh's views on targeted killings have been criticized by analysts who have stressed the inconsistency between his critique of Bush's War on Terror policy and his later views on law and counterterrorism.[41][42]
Koh was also criticized by lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who represents activistJulian Assange, for addressing a letter to both her and her client. Robinson felt this was in breach of legal custom.[43]
He left the State Department in January 2013, returning toYale University as aSterling Professor ofinternational law.[44][45]
From International to Transnational Law in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law.
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 1998–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Legal Adviser of the Department of State 2009–2013 | Succeeded by Mary McLeod Acting |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Dean ofYale Law School 2004–2009 | Succeeded by |