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Laura A. Dickinson

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Laura A. Dickinson
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard University (AB)
Yale Law School (JD)
OccupationLaw professor
Known forExpert on private security forces law

Laura Anne Dickinson is the Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law at George Washington University School of Law.[1] She is the author of the 2011 book Outsourcing War and Peace, which discusses the current trend in the United States towards privatization of the military.

Career

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Dickinson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and completed her juris doctor at Yale Law School in 1996.[1] After graduation, she clerked for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 2001 to 2008, Dickinson was a member of the faculty at the University of Connecticut School of Law.[2] She moved to Arizona State University in 2008, where she served as director of the Center for Law and Global Affairs at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law until 2011.[2] She was also visiting research scholar and visiting professor in the Law and Public Affairs Program at Princeton University in 2006–2007.[2]

In 2008, Dickinson testified before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the subject of "private security firms operating in war zones" where she noted that "The use of private security contractors and interrogators poses special risks and potentially threatens core values embodied in our legal system including respect for human dignity and limits on the use of force as well as a commitment to transparency and accountability."[3]

Dickinson has served in government, first as senior policy advisor in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and later as special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense. She is currently a Francis Lieber Scholar at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Research and publications

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She has written about for-profit and non-profit private involvement with various aspects of the US foreign aid budget, including providing emergency humanitarian relief, development assistance, as well as post-conflict reconstruction efforts. Her work also discusses the phenomenon of private entities that have started to perform tasks she describes as "core military functions".[4]

Dickinson is author of the book Outsourcing War and Peace (2011). The book acknowledges that privatization of the military is "likely to be a fact of life for twenty-first century military activity". She notes that a process that began during William Cohen's tenure as Secretary of Defense was significantly expanded under Donald Rumsfeld and his successor Robert Gates. In a review published by The American Journal of International Law Scott Horton wrote that the book "stands alone as the first serious engagement" of the private security contractor industry at the "level of law and legal policy".[5] Stephanie Gosnell Handel, a former Marine officer, writes that Dickinson focuses on "developing a legal, regulatory, and institutional framework to respond to the threat outsourcing poses to public values."[6] Writing in Leiden Journal of International Law, Rain Liivoja notes that the book explains "how the formal legal rules—whether national or international—should not be seen as a panacea and how there are other mechanisms for ensuring respect for human dignity, transparency, and public participation—the public values that are the book's main concern."[7] Law professor Elena Baylis writes that Outsourcing War and Peace is an "engaging book" that "examines a variety of means of potentially holding contractors accountable including retroactive criminal and tort remedies, as well as proactive measures such as changes to contracting terms and practices, steps to increase public participation, and changes to organizational structure within contracting companies."[8]

Personal life

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In June 2000 Dickinson married Paul Schiff Berman, a professor at The George Washington University Law School. The ceremony was officiated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—Berman had previously been one of Ginsburg's law clerks. Berman and Dickinson met while Dickinson was clerking for Justice Harry A. Blackmun and Justice Stephen G. Breyer.[1]

Awards

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  • July 2017: U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Laura Dickinson, Paul Berman". New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. New York, N.Y., United States, New York, N.Y. June 4, 2000. p. 9. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Laura Dickinson (Faculty Profile) Program in Law and Public Affairs". Princeton University. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  3. ^ "Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman Holds a Hearing on Private Security Firms Operating in War Zones". Political Transcript Wire; Lanham. Lanham, United States, Lanham. February 29, 2008. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  4. ^ Dickinson, Laura A (2005). "Government For Hire: Privatizing Foreign Affairs and the Problem of Accountability Under International Law". William and Mary Law Review. 47: 104. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018.
  5. ^ Scott Horton (2012). "Review". The American Journal of International Law. 106 (2): 431–437. doi:10.5305/amerjintelaw.106.2.0431. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 10.5305/amerjintelaw.106.2.0431. S2CID 141002113.
  6. ^ Handler, Slephenie Gosnell (2011). "Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs". Stanford Journal of International Law. 47 (2): 451–456. ISSN 0731-5082. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  7. ^ Liivoja, Rain (2012). "Regulating the Private Military and Security Industry: A Quest to Maintain State Control and Preserve Public Values". Leiden Journal of International Law. 25 (4): 1019–1028. doi:10.1017/S0922156512000568. ISSN 0922-1565. S2CID 145661719.
  8. ^ Baylis, Elena (2012). "Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs". Journal of International Law & International Relations. Retrieved July 13, 2018 – via Gale group.
  9. ^ "Professor Dickinson Receives Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service". The George Washington University Law School. October 31, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
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