Paul B. Stephan Earns Traynor Award for Faculty Scholarship

University of Virginia School of Law professor Paul B. Stephan ’77 has won the Roger and Madeleine Traynor Faculty Achievement Award, which recognizes scholarship by a senior faculty member.

Stephan received the honor Monday during a faculty luncheon in the Law School’s Caplin Pavilion. The award provides $5,000 to the recipient and is generally given every other year. Dean Risa Goluboff presented the award.

“Paul’s scholarly career is marked by distinction in every respect — in his publications, the impact of his scholarly endeavors on the law, and in his actual public service as a legal adviser,” Goluboff said.

Stephan recently completed six years of work as a coordinating reporter for the American Law Institute on its fourth restatement of foreign relations law, an effort which he co-led, and the primary reason he received the Traynor prize.

Restatements are authoritative and influential reference books on judicial decision-making and legal practice. The ALI is scheduled to release “The Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States” in October.

“As you can imagine, a lot has changed in the 30 years that has passed since the last restatement,” the dean said of the massive effort. “It is a real accomplishment.”

An expert on foreign relations law and international business disputes, among other topics, Stephan holds dual endowed professorships at UVA Law. He is the John C. Jeffries, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law and the John V. Ray Research Professor of Law.

Stephan also co-edited “Comparative International Law” with Anthea Roberts of Columbia Law School and UVA Law professors Pierre-Hugues Verdier and Mila Versteeg. Oxford University Press published the book this year.

He is the author of six books, more than 20 book chapters and numerous influential articles, book reviews and other writings on topics ranging from tax to constitutional law.

“What one notes when one peruses Paul’s scholarship overall, which I have recently done, is not only its immense breadth, but also its incredibly collaborative nature,” Goluboff said.

In addition to writing prolifically about international business and comparative law, with an emphasis on Soviet and post-Soviet legal systems, Stephan has advised governments and international organizations, including as counselor on international law to the legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State; taken part in cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts, and various foreign judicial and arbitral proceedings; and lectured to professionals and scholarly groups around the world on issues raised by the globalization of the world economy.

Stephan received his B.A. and M.A. from Yale University in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1977. He joined the UVA Law faculty in 1979.

The Traynor award was established in 1994 by a gift of Madeleine Traynor in honor of her husband, a former chief justice of the California Supreme Court and a visiting professor at the Law School during the 1960s.