Ann Elizabeth Mayer

Ann Elizabeth Mayer "is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies in the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has also taught as a visitor at Yale University Law School (1997); at Georgetown University (1992); and at Princeton University (1983). She has taught law courses on subjects including law and policy in international business, globalization and human rights, comparative law, Islamic law in contemporary Middle Eastern legal systems, and introductions to U.S. law.

"She earned a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan in 1978; a Certificate in Islamic and Comparative Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 1977; a J.D. from the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1975; an M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (Arabic and Persian) from the University of Michigan in 1966; and a B.A. in Honors German from the University of Michigan in 1964.

"She has written extensively on issues of Islamic law in contemporary legal systems, comparative law, international law, and the problems of integrating international human rights law in domestic legal systems. A major portion of her scholarship concerns human rights issues in contemporary North Africa and the Middle East. She has published widely in law reviews and in scholarly journals and books concerned with comparative and international law and politics in contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Her book Islam and Human Rights. Tradition and Politics (Boulder: Westview, 2007) is now in its fourth edition.

"Her interest in international human rights law encompasses the emergence of new ideas of corporate responsibility under international human rights law and the problems that come with transferring what were formerly state obligations to private actors.

"A member of the Pennsylvania Bar, she consults widely on cases involving human rights issues and Middle Eastern law."

"Scholar in residence at the Humanities Center of the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, as part of a group of scholars working on the project “Universalism and Local Knowledge in Human Rights” at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, May 14-June 28, 2003...

"Residency at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, April-May 1998; Listings in Who's Who in American Law, 5th ed., Who's Who in the East, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders of America; Fulbright Fellowship for research in Tunisia, 1993, and for research in Morocco, 1992; Fellowship from the American Institute for Pakistan Studies for summer research in Pakistan on Islamic banking and tax laws, 1982; Fellowships from the American Research Center in Egypt for summer 1980 research on Islamic banking in Cairo and on Islamic jurisprudence in 1984 (deferred); Award from the Society for Libyan Studies and from the University of Pennsylvania for summer research on Libyan law, 1978; Gowen Prize Fellowships, University of Pennsylvania Law School for advanced study at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1975-77; Fellowship from the Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania, for research at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, Trinity Term, 1974; National Defense Foreign Language Fellowships, 1973-75; Block Grant, History Department, University of Michigan, 1970-71; National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship, 1967-68; Grant from the Center for Near East and North African Studies, University of Michigan, 1967; Grant for study at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad, American University in Cairo, Cairo, summer, 1966; National Defense Foreign Language Fellowships, 1965-66; Phi Beta Kappa."


 * Advisory Council, Women’s Learning Partnership
 * Member of the Editorial Review Board of Human Rights Quarterly, 1994-
 * Member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, 1994- and Vice President 1999-2003.
 * Member of the Working Group on Religion, Ideology and Peace at the US Institute of Peace, 1993-98.
 * Member of the Advisory Board of the Muslim Politics Project of the Council on Foreign Relations, 1995-1997.
 * Consultant for Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in connection with two missions to Kuwait for evaluation of the human rights situation, 1991-1993.
 * Nominated as candidate for President of the Middle East Studies Association, 1999.
 * Consulting with Frank Sutton, Vice-President of the Ford Foundation, for the Harvard Institute for International Development regarding proposals for a new center under the auspices of the Aga Khan Foundation for studies of law and development in the Muslim World, 1982.
 * Member of Editorial Board of The Arab Law Quarterly and of The Columbia Journal of World Business.
 * Member of the Board of Directors of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, 1983-89.
 * Member, Cosmos Club