William E. Butler
John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of LawWilliam E. Butler specializes in international and comparative law, focusing principally on Russia, Eurasia generally, and public and private international law. A member of the Dickinson Law community since 2005, he served as reader (1970-1976) and professor of comparative law (1976-2005) in the University of London — attached to University College London — where he is presently emeritus professor of comparative law. In 1992, he was elected a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and in 2012, a foreign member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine. Both Ukrainian Academies have awarded him their Gold Medal for distinguished contributions to international and comparative legal scholarship, and the Supreme Court of Ukraine its medal “For Fidelity to Law” — all distinctions rarely awarded to foreigners. Professor Butler has published widely in his chosen fields and been among those responsible for the development of Comparative International Law, having written widely on the subject; lectured at The Hague Academy of International Law (1985) on the subject; introduced LL.M. courses at University College London on the subject; and advised on syllabus reform to reflect this approach to interface between traditional comparative legal studies and public and private international law. Professor Butler received his B.A. from the School of International Service, The American University (1961); M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University (1963); J.D. from Harvard Law School (1966); LL.M. from the Academy University of Law, Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences (1997); Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS, 1970); and LL.D. from the University of London (1979). He has since received three honorary doctorates, most recently from the Kyiv University of Law (Ukraine) and the University of Uppsala (Sweden). Professor Butler has been elected to the arbitrator panels of the international commercial arbitration courts of the Russian Federation (1995), Kazakhstan (2012), and Ukraine (2013), and also served as an arbitrator or expert in the Stockholm, London, Paris, Hague, and other arbitral tribunals. At Dickinson Law, Professor Butler offers courses or seminars on Russian Law and Legal Institutions; International Investment Transactions; History of International Law, Law of the Sea, Law of Treaties, and International Human Rights Law. He is the founding editor of Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History (2016-) and co-founding editor of the Journal of Comparative Law (2005-). By way of pastimes, Professor Butler is a bibliophile and bookplate collector, and member of The Grolier Club, Washington Rare Book Club, National Union of Bibliophiles (Russia), and former Executive Secretary of the International Federation of Exlibris Societies (1986-2016). Since 2019, he has served as Chairman of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies. |
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717-240-5227
Butler’s Publications
Butler has published extensively in his fields of interest. He is the author, co-author, editor, or translator of books, looseleaf services, casebooks, articles, translations, and reviews on Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarus, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Baltic, and other CIS legal systems. Salient titles include:
Books
Butler, William E., Editor; Kresin, O.V., Editor; Discovering the Unexpected: Comparative Legal Studies in Eastern and Central Europe. Clark, New Jersey: Talbot Publishing, 2021. xiv, 562 p.
___. (ed. & transl.). Comparative Law in Warsaw 1800-1835, by O. V. Kresin. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021. xiii, 242 p. Casebound (JCL Studies in Comparative Law. Second Series, No. 3).
___. (ed. & transl.). Contemporary International Law of Civilized Peoples. General Part, by Fedor Fedorovich Martens. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021. lxii, 355 p.
___. (ed.). Discovering the Unexpected: Comparative Legal Studies in Eastern and Central Europe. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021. xiv, 547 p. (JCL Studies in Comparative Law. Second Series, No. 1) (with O. V. Kresin).
Reviewed: Правова держава, no. 33 (2022), pp. 716-718 (I. B. Usenko). ___.
Grotius on War and Peace in English Translation. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021. viii, 162, viii p.
Articles in Books
___. “Biographical Sketch of F. F. Martens”, in Fedor Fedorovich Martens, Contemporary International Law of Civilized Peoples. General Part. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021, pp. xxviii-lviii (with Vitalii S. Ivanenko).
___. “Editorial Preface to English Translation”, in Fedor Fedorovich Martens, Contemporary International Law of Civilized Peoples. General Part. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021, pp. xxiv-xxvii.
___. “The Freedom of the Seas”, in Randall Lesaffer and Janne E. Nijman (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 477-491.
___. “The Kelsey Translation of Hugo Grotius”, in Hugo Grotius, De jure belli ac pacis. Libri tres. Clark, New Jersey, The Lawbook Exchange Ltd., 2021, pp. 1-52.
___. “Peter the Great as a Comparative Lawyer”, in J. M. Hartley and Denis J. B. Shaw (eds.), Magic, Texts and Travel: Homage to a Scholar, Will Ryan. London, Study Group on Eighteenth Century Russia, 2021, pp. 214-226.
___, “Preface”, in O. V. Kresin, Comparative Law in Warsaw 1800-1835. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021, pp. vii-viii (JCL Studies in Comparative Law. Second Series, No. 3).
___. “Translation Note”, in O. V. Kresin, Comparative Law in Warsaw 1800-1835. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2021, p. ix (JCL Studies in Comparative Law. Second Series, No. 3).
Articles
___. “Bibliography of Russian Magister and Doctoral Dissertations on Public and Private International Law”, Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 197-224.
___. “Bookseller Reminiscences”, FABS Journal, XXVI, no. 2 (2022), pp. 43-45.
___. “Britney Griner, “Crime & Punishment in Russia”, New York Daily News, 19 July 2022, p. 20, cols. 3-4.
___. “On the Ratification of Treaties in Prerevolutionary Russia”, Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 7-23.
___. “Russian Constitutional Reforms and the Foreign Investor”, Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation, XXXVII, no. 9 (September 2022), pp. 327-330.
___. “The 2020 Constitutional Reform in Russia: Some Challenges of Legal Translation”, The Journal of Comparative Law, XVII (2022), pp. 219-224.
___. “Wheaton’s Elements and Fair Use: The Protagonists”, Jus Gentium, VII (2022), pp. 331-357.
___. “The Book that made Catherine II ‘Great’”, Journal of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2021), pp. 5-14.
___. “Letter from the Chair”, Journal of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, XXV, no. 2 (Fall 2021), pp. 4-5.
___. “Proceeding on Cases with the Participation of Foreign Persons in International Procedural Law of Russia and Belarus”, State and Law, no. 10 (2021), pp. 173-185 (with N. Iu. Erpyleva).
___. «Виктор Павлович Мозолин – цивилист и американист» in V. P. Mozolin, Избранные труды [Selected Works] (Moscow, Prospekt, 2021), pp. 5-8.
___. “Viktor Pavlovich Mozolin – Civilist and Americanist”, in V. P. Mozolin, Избранные труды [Selected Works] (Moscow, Prospekt, 2021), pp. 9-11.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge: Legal Polymath, Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, January 2020
Peter Stephen Du Ponceau: Pennsylvania Lawyer Extraordinaire, Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, October 2018
Treatises
Soviet Law (London, Butterworths, 1983; 2d ed., 1988).
The Corporation and Securities Under Russian and American Law (with Maryann E. Gashi-Butler) (Moscow, Zertsalo, 1997).
Russian Law (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999; 2d ed., 2003; 3d ed., 2009).[1]
Russian Law and Legal Institutions (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2014; 2d ed., 2018).
Russian Family Law (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2015);
Russian Inheritance Law (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2015).
Russia and the Law of Nations (London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2009).
Foreign Investment Law in the Commonwealth of Independent States (2002).
The Law of Treaties in Russia and Other Member Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
The Tunkin Diaries and Lectures (2012); and others.
Dictionaries
Russian-English Legal Dictionary (Second Revised and Expanded Edition. Clark, New Jersey: Talbot Publishing, June 2023).
Russian-English Legal Dictionary (Ardsley, Transnational, 2001; Moscow, Zertsalo, 2001).
Casebooks
The Soviet Legal System (with J. N. Hazard and P. B. Maggs) (Dobbs Ferry, Oceana Publications, 1977; new ed., 1984).
International Litigation and Arbitration (with T. E. Carbonneau) (2d ed.; St. Paul, West, 2013).
Book Reviews
Amell, Amaya. Francisco de Vitoria and the Evolution of International Law: Justifying Injustice. Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books, 2021. [v], 133 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 225.
Andrade, Tonio. The Last Embassy: The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China. Princeton & Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2021. xiv, 409 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 225-226.
Bazyler, Michael, Bryant, Michael, Nelson, Kristen, Al-Sarraf, Sermid. Comparative Law: Global Legal Traditions. Durham, North Carolina, Carolina Academic Press, 2021. Paperbound. $115.00, in: Journal of Comparative Law, XVII (2022), p. 249.
Beliakov, A. V., Gus’kov, A. G., Liseitsev, D. V., Shamin, S. M. Переводчики посольского приказа в XVII в.: Материалы к словарю [Translators of the Ambassadorial Department in the Seventeenth Century: Materials for a Dictionary]. Moscow, Indrik, 2021. 304 p. Paperbound. 500 ptd. (Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences), in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 226.
Berkmann, Burkhard Josef. The Internal Law of Religions: Introduction to a Comparative Discipline, transl. David E . Orton New York and London, Routledge, 2021. xii, 196 p. Casebound. $160.00, in: Journal of Comparative Law, XVII (2022), pp. 249-250.
Eyffinger, Arthur. The World Court: Volume I. The Constitution (1870-1920). [Oisterwijk, Netherlands], Wolf Legal Publishers/Judicap, 2022. x, 572 p. Illustrated casebound with dustwrapper. 129.95 euros, in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), p. 529.
Fedele, Dante. The Medieval Foundations of International Law: Baldus de Ubaldis (1327-1400). Doctrine and Practice of the Ius Gentium. Leiden/Boston, Brill | Nijhoff, 2021. xxi, 697 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 226-227.
Goodman, Gary, The Last Bookseller: A Life in the Rare Book Trade. Minneapolis/London, University of Minnesota Press, 2021. 182, [iv] p., in: FABS Journal, XXVI, no. 2 (2022), pp. 43-45.
Junker, Kirk W. (ed.), U.S. Law for Civil Lawyers: A Practitioner’s Guide. Baden-Baden, Beck, Nomos, Hart, 2021. xxxviii, 362 p. Casebound. 140 euros, in: Journal of Comparative Law, XVII (2022), p. 250.
Kaiga, Sakiko. Britain and the Intellectual Origins of the League of Nations, 1914-1919. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 2021. viii, 224 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 227-228.
Keith, Phil, with Clavin, Tom, To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth: The Epic Hunt for the South’s Most Feared Ship – and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War. Toronto, Hanover Square Press, 2022. 316 p. Casebound with dustwrapper. $29.99, in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), p. 530.
Kévonian, Dzovinar. La danse du pendule : les juristes et l’internationalisation des droits de l’homme, 1920-1939. Paris, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021. 446, [2] p. Paperbound, in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 228.
Kociejowski, Marius, A Factotum in the Book Trade: A Memoir. Windsor, Ontario, Biblioasis, 2022. [viii], 349 p. Paperbound. $18.95, in: FABS Journal, XXVI, no. 2 (2022), pp. 43-45.
Koskenniemi, Martti. To the Utmost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power,1300-1870. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 2021. xviii, 1107 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 228-229.
Lieber, Francis, Lieber, G. Norman, To Save the Country: A Lost Treatise on Martial Law, ed. and intro. Will Smiley and John Fabian Witt. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2019. xiii, 334 p., in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 229.
Merkin, Rob. Marine Insurance: A Legal History. Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021. 2 vols. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 229-230.
Meyer, Tirza. Elisabeth Mann Borgese and the Law of the Sea. Foreword by Helen M. Rozwadowski. Leiden and Boston, Brill/Nijhoff, 2022. xviii, 282 p. Casebound (Legal History Library 59/Studies in the History of International Law 23, ed. Randall Lesaffer), in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), p. 530.
Morris, P. Sean (ed.). The League of Nations and the Development of International Law: A New Intellectual History of the Advisory Committee of Jurists. London and New York, Routledge, 2022. ix, 252 p. Casebound. $155.00 (Routledge Research in Legal History), in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), p. 531.
Morris, P. Sean (ed.). Transforming the Politics of International Law: The Advisory Committee of Jurists and the Formation of the World Court in the League of Nations. Foreword by Jan Klabbers. London and New York, Routledge, 2022. xiv, 246 p. Casebound. $155.00 (Routledge Research in Legal History), in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), pp.. 531-532.
Müllerson, Rein. Living in Interesting Times: Curse of Chance? Recollections of an International Lawyer – Participant and Observer. London, Austin Macauley Publishers, 2021. 219 p. Paperbound, in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 230.
Ng, Joel. Contesting Sovereignty: Power and Practice in Africa and Southeast Asia. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 2021. xviii, 298 p. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), pp. 230-231.
Oborneva, Zinaida Evgen’evna. Переводчики с греческого языка Посольского приказа (1613-1645 гг.) [Translators from the Greek Language of the Ambassadorial Department (1613-1645)]. 2d ed.; Moscow, Izdatel’skii dom IaSK, 2020. 288 p. Casebound. 300 ptd. in: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, VII (2022), p. 231.
Pirages, Phillip J., Booked by Fate; or, A Life of Dealing in the Exotic World of Rare Books (Beginning with a Garage Sale). [McMinnville, Oregon], Printed for the Author, 2022. [xvi], 335. [ii] p. Casebound. $25.00; Paperbound. $16.00, in: FABS Journal, XXVI, no. 2 (2022), pp. 43-45.
Rygiel, Philippe. L’ordre des Circulations? L’Institut de droit international et la régulation des migrations (1970-1920). [Paris], Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021. 349 p. Paperbound. 28.00 euros, in: Jus Gentium, VII (2022), p. 532.
Shetreet, Shimon, Chodosh, Hiram, and Helland, Eric (eds.), Challenged Justice: In Pursuit of Judicial Independence. Leiden | Boston, Brill Nijhoff, 2021. xxxix, 548 p. Casebound. $377.00, in: Journal of Comparative Law, XVII (2022), pp. 250-251.
Wolf, Clarence, Fifty Years a Bookseller: or, The Wolf at Your Door. Prologue by Stephen Weissman. Bryn Mawr, Privately Printed, 2022. xxi, [vi], 156 p. Casebound with dustwrapper. $25.00, in: FABS Journal, XXVI, no. 2 (2022), pp. 43-45.
___.. Davies, Ross E., Hoeflich, M. H. (eds.). Holmes Reads Holmes: Reflections on the Real-Life Links Between the Jurist & the Detective in the Library, in the Courtroom, and on the Battlefield. Clark, New Jersey, Talbot Publishing, 2020. 84 p. Casebound. $24.95. Reviewed in: Law & Literature, XXXIII (Fall 2021), pp. 547-550. doi.org.10.1080/153568X.2021.1930890 (online, 9 June 2021).
Legislative Collections and Texts
General
___. “Constitution of the Russian Federation”, in Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society. 5th ed.; London and New York, Routledge, 2021, pp. 606-665.
Russian Legal Texts (with J. E. Henderson: Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1998).
Tadzhikistan Legal Texts (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999).
Uzbekistan Legal Texts (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999).
Civil Legislation
Russian Civil Legislation (Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999).
Russian Company Law (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 2000).
Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003; London, Wildy, Simmonds, & Hill, 2010 and 2016).
Civil Code of the Republic Belarus (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 2000).
Civil Code of Ukraine (Kyiv, 2011).
Civil Code of the Republic Uzbekistan (3d ed.; London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999 and 2018).
Civil Code of the Republic Kazakhstan (3d ed; London, Simmonds & Hill, 1997 and 2007).
Turkmenistan Civil Code (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999).
Russian Company and Commercial Legislation (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003).
Intellectual Property Law in the Russian Federation (London, Simmonds & Hill, 2002).
Criminal Legislation
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — Russian, Eurasian, and East European Codes of Law (Talbot Publishing, 2022).
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (4th ed.; London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2004).
Russian Criminal Law and Procedure (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2011).
Criminal Code of Ukraine (Kyiv, 2011).
Tax Law
Tax Code of the Russian Federation (Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1999).
Family Law
Russian Family Law (London, Simmonds & Hill; Boston/The Hague, Kluwer Law International, 1998).
Family Code of Ukraine (Kyiv, 2011).
Economic Law
Economic Code of Ukraine (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2004; Kyiv, 2011).
Procedural Law
Russian Civil and Arbitrazh Procedure (2012).
In addition he has published numerous articles in the leading law reviews of the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States. In 2003 he completed a major study for the Department for International Development, published separately in the English and Russian languages as: HIV/AIDS and Drug Misuse in Russia: Harm Reduction Programmes and the Russian Legal System (London, DFID/IFH, 2003). In 2009 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published in the English and Russian languages his The Right to Health and the United Nations Conventions on Narcotics, a study of Russian compliance with the United Nations conventions on narcotics.
He has translated and edited a number of treatises and monographs published in Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, among them:
G. I. Tunkin, Theory of International Law (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1974; 2d ed.; London, 2004).
A. Kh. Saidov, Comparative Law (London, 2003).
The Legal System of Ukraine, in 5 volumes (Kyiv, 2013).
Ukrainian Legal Doctrine, in 6 volumes (London, 2015-2018).
Lev Rebet, The Comparative Method in the Science of Law, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., edited and translated by William E. Butler and O.V. Kresin
He has published translations of more than 3200 normative legal acts adopted in the former USSR, all CIS countries, and Mongolia, a full bibliography of which is contained in International and Comparative Law: A Personal Bibliography (London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2015).
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[1]
Cited United States Court of Appeals, 2004.
Butler’s Presentations and Panels
20/21 October 2021: Panelist and Chair, International Conference on International Legal Journals, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
29 October 2021: Delivered Report by Zoom, Ukrainian Society of International Law
9 December 2021: Honorary Chairman and Report, Mozolin Readings, Kutafin Academy University, Moscow, via Zoom
12 September 2022: addressed The Book Club of California, San Francisco, on bookplate collecting.
2 November 2022: addressed Dickinson retired professors on events in Ukraine
17 November 2022: Spoke at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, Lausanne, Switzerland, Presentation of book which I edited and translated on the comparative method in the science of law.
2022: Gave twenty or so interviews to newspaper, radio, and television media on the Griner case between 18 February 2022 and October 2022
Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law are reunifying to operate as Penn State University’s single law school, which will be known as Penn State Dickinson Law. While ABA approval for the reunification is pending, both schools are currently fully accredited. We submitted an application for acquiescence to operate as a single law school in July 2024 and plan to enroll a unified class in Fall 2025. Once reunification is complete, the separate faculties of each school will be members of the reunified Penn State Dickinson Law faculty.