John K. Setear

  • Class of 1962 Professor of Law

John Setear joined the Law School as professor of law in 1998. He primarily teaches courses in international law, including international environmental law and counterfactual diplomatic history.

Setear joined the faculty of UCLA Law School in 1991 after serving as a policy analyst in the behavioral sciences department of the RAND Corporation. During the 1995-96 academic year, he was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He taught a winter study course at Williams College in 1989, 1990, and 2003.

While in law school, Setear was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. Following graduation, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Judge Carl McGowan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Scholarship Profile: Explaining the Game of International Law and Politics (Virginia Journal 2008)

Education

  • J.D.
    Yale Law School
    1984
  • B.A.
    Williams College
    1981

Book Chapters

Constraints (with Richard E. Darilek), in Conventional Arms Control and East-West Security, Duke University Press, 379–404 (1989).
Quantitative Modeling and Non-Provocative Defense, in Non-Provocative Defense as a Principle of Arms Reduction and Its Implications for Assessing Defence Technologies, Free University Press, 87–98 (1989).

Articles & Reviews

Carlin and Collapse, 101 American Society of International Law Proceedings 171–172 (2007).
In-Version, 58 Stanford Law Review 1721–1729 (2006).
A Forest with No Trees: The Supreme Court and International Law in the 2003 Term, 91 Virginia Law Review 579–675 (2005).
Room for Law: Realism, Evolutionary Biology, and the Promise(s) of International Law, 23 Berkeley Journal of International Law 1–46 (2005).
Treaties, Custom, Iteration, and Public Choice, 5 Chicago Journal of International Law 715–736 (2005).
Can Legalization Last?: Whaling and the Durability of National (Executive) Discretion, 44 Virginia Journal of International Law 711–757 (2004).
The President’s Rational Choice of a Treaty’s Preratification Pathway : Article II, Congressional-Executive Agreement, or Executive Agreement?, 31 Journal of Legal Studies S5-S39 (2002).
Learning to Live with Losing: International Environmental Law at the New Millennium, 20 Virginia Environmental Law Journal 139–167 (2001).
Treaties, Custom, Rational Choice, and Public Choice, 94 American Society of International Law Proceedings 187–188 (2000).
Ozone, Iteration, and International Law, 40 Virginia Journal of International Law 193–309 (1999).
Law in the Service of Politics: Moving Neo-Liberal Institutionalism from Metaphor to Theory by Using the International Treaty Process to Define “Iteration”, 37 Virginia Journal of International Law 641–724 (1997).
Responses to Breach of a Treaty and Rationalist International Relations Theory:  The Rules of Release and Remediation in the Law of Treaties and the Law of State Responsibility, 83 Virginia Law Review 1–126 (1997).
An Iterative Perspective on Treaties: A Synthesis of International Relations Theory and International Law, 37 Harvard International Law Journal 139–230 (1996).
A Game of Urban Drug Policy (with James P. Kahan & C. Peter Rydell), 1 Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 275–290 (1995).
Comments on Judges' Opinions on Procedural Issues, 69 Boston University Law Review 765–780 (1989).
The Barrister and the Bomb: The Dynamics of Cooperation, Nuclear Deterrence, and Discovery Abuse, 69 Boston University Law Review 569–634 (1989).
Discovery Abuse under the Federal Rules: Causes and Cures, 92 Yale Law Journal (1982).

Reports & Datasets

Developing Games of Local Drug Policy (with M. M. Bitzinger et al.), RAND Corporation (1992).
A Political-Military Game of Protracted Conflict in Europe, RAND Corporation (1990).
The Army in a Changing World: The Role of Organizational Vision (with Melinda D. Baccus, Carl H. Builder & E. Wayne Madewell), RAND Corporation (1990).
Arms Control Constraints for Conventional Forces in Europe (with Richard E. Darilek), RAND Corporation (1990).
Protracted Conflict in Central Europe: A Conceptual Analysis, RAND Corporation (1989).
Simulating the Fog of War, RAND Corporation (1989).

Current Courses

An American Half-Century
Baseball (SC)
International Environmental Law
Seminar in Ethical Values (YR)

All Courses

Contracts
Colloquium in International Relations Theory (seminar)
Environmental Drafting and Negotiating (seminar)
Global Warming (seminar)
How We Get Into War (seminar)
International Environmental Law
International Ifs: Historical Hypothetical (seminar)
International Law
Rules
Seminar in Ethical Values
War Crimes (seminar)

IN THE NEWS

10/21/2016
Global Climate Pact May Bump Into Senate Roadblock (The Hill)
10/18/2016
US Senate Could Block Landmark HFC Climate Treaty, Legal Experts Warn (The Guardian)
10/17/2016
U.S. Senate Could Block Landmark HFC Climate Treaty (Climate Central)
03/05/2004
Cop checkmates students/Amateur chess king defeats 11 (The Daily Progress)
03/22/2003
Democrats' Blame Campaign Finds Few Sympathetic Ears (Congressional Quarterly Weekly)
02/21/2003
Democrats' Anti-War Lawsuit Faces Daunting Legal Precedent (Congressional Quarterly Weekly)
10/11/2002
Broad Resolution Allows Bush To Set Terms Of War Without (Congressional Quarterly Weekly)
09/27/2002
The Ghosts Of Tonkin: Questions And Resolutions (Congressional Quarterly Weekly )

AT UVA LAW

WTJU Interviews Professor Setear About His Research Into Contracts With the Devil in Pop Culture
Panel: The Role of Security Forces in Promoting Rule of Law

Featured Scholarship