Pierre-Hugues Verdier

  • Professor of Law
  • Director, Graduate Studies Program

Pierre-Hugues Verdier joined the faculty in 2009 and was appointed professor of law in 2014. He specializes in public international law, banking and financial regulation, and international economic relations. His current research focuses on the reception of international law in domestic legal systems, foreign state immunity and customary international law. He is the author of the book “Global Banks on Trial: U.S. Prosecutions and the Remaking of International Finance.” His research has appeared in multiple law reviews, peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he has delivered numerous lectures on his work in the United States and internationally.

Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law, Verdier was a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Canada, practiced corporate and financial law with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York City, and was a visiting assistant professor at Boston University School of Law. Since joining the UVA Law faculty, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (Spring 2017), the University of Chicago Law School (Fall 2014), and the University of Münster (Summer 2014).

Verdier is a graduate of the joint civil law and common law program of the Faculty of Law, McGill University, and obtained LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School, where he was a Trudeau Scholar, a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, and a Graduate Student Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He has also held scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture du Québec. Verdier is a member of the bars of New York and Ontario.

Education

  • S.J.D.
    Harvard Law School
    2010
  • Diploma
    Hague Academy of International Law
    2007
  • LL.M.
    Harvard Law School
    2004
  • LL.B.
    McGill University
    2001
  • B.C.L.
    McGill University
    2001

Books

Comparative International Law (edited with Anthea Roberts, Paul B. Stephan & Mila Versteeg), Oxford University Press (2018).

Book Chapters

Separation of Powers, Treaty-Making, and Treaty Withdrawal: A Global Survey (with Mila Versteeg), in Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law, Oxford University Press, 135–155 (2019).
Conceptualizing Comparative International Law (with Anthea Roberts, Paul B. Stephan & Mila Versteeg), in Comparative International Law, Oxford University Press, 3–31 (2018).
Modes of Domestic Incorporation of International Law (with Mila Versteeg), in Research Handbook on the Politics of International Law, Edward Elgar, 149–175 (2017).
US Implementation of Basel II: Lessons for Informal International Lawmaking, in Informal International Lawmaking, Oxford University Press, 437–467 (2012).

Articles & Reviews

The Global Evolution of Foreign Relations Law (with Kevin Cope & Mila Versteeg), American Journal of International Law 1–67 (2021).
International Human Rights and Multinational Corporations: An FCPA Approach (with Paul B. Stephan), 101 Boston University Law Review 1359 (2021).
The New Financial Extraterritoriality, 87 George Washington Law Review 239–314 (2019).
The Strength of Weak Review: National Courts, Interpretive Canons, and Human Rights Treaties (with Yonatan Lupu & Mila Versteeg), 63 International Studies Quarterly 507–520 (2019).
Comparative International Law: Framing the Field (with Anthea Roberts, Paul B. Stephan & Mila Versteeg), 109 American Journal of International Law 467–474 (2015).
How Does Customary International Law Change? The Case of State Immunity (with Erik Voeten), 59 International Studies Quarterly 209–222 (2015).
International Law in National Legal Systems: An Empirical Investigation (with Mila Versteeg), 109 American Journal of International Law 514–533 (2015).
Precedent, Compliance, and Change in Customary International Law: An Explanatory Theory (with Erik Voeten), 108 American Journal of International Law 389–434 (2014).
International Law in Domestic Legal Systems: An Empirical Perspective (with Mila Versteeg), 108 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 376–382 (2013).
The Political Economy of International Financial Regulation, 88 Indiana Law Journal 1405–1474 (2013).
Mutual Recognition in International Finance, 52 Harvard International Law Journal 55–108 (2011).
Review of Tarullo, Banking on Basel (reviewing Daniel K. Tarullo, Banking on Basel: The Future of International Financial Regulation) 104 American Journal of International Law 338–342 (2010).
Transnational Regulatory Networks and Their Limits, 34 Yale Journal of International Law 113–172 (2009).
The Enforcement of International Judgments and Decisions in Canada, 103 American Society of International Law Proceedings 48–52 (2009).
International Decisions—R. v. Hape, 102 American Journal of International Law 143–148 (2008).
Cooperative States: International Relations, State Responsibility and the Problem of Custom, 42 Virginia Journal of International Law 839–868 (2002).

Op-Eds, Blogs, Shorter Works

A Response to Professors Meyer, Ohlin and Lorite Escorihuela (with Erik Voeten), 108 American Journal of International Law Unbound 257–262 (2015).

Featured Scholarship