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Richard J. Wilson is Professor of Law Emeritus and founding director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University’s Washington College of Law, in Washington, D.C, where he has taught since 1989. Professor Wilson was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Panama from 1966-1968, and a 1972 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. He began his legal career as a public defender in Illinois, and was director of the Defender Division at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in Washington from 1980-85. He taught at CUNY Law School in New York City from 1985-1989.

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Professor Wilson has taught in the law school’s summer Human Rights Academy and in the Oxford International Human Rights Law Program. He was the director of the law school’s summer study program in Chile in 1995 and 1996, and director of the law school’s clinics from 1999-2003. He has been a Visiting Lecturer in law at Daito Bunka University in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Catholic University in Lima, Peru. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the Republic of Colombia in 1987, and served as Legal Advisor to the Consulate of the Republic of Colombia in Washington during 1998.


He has lived or consulted in several Latin American countries and has lectured or consulted in the United States, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia. Professor Wilson has presented three cases at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica and authored the friend-of-court briefs for the European Union in the United States Supreme Court successfully arguing that international law prohibits capital punishment for juveniles and for persons with mental retardation.Ìý


He is a co-editor of textbooks on international human rights law and practice; defense in international criminal law; and international criminal law and procedure. His scholarly interests include the globalization of public interest law, the death penalty and international law, the role of the defense in international war crimes trials, and clinical legal education in developing or transitional countries.

Professor Wilson retired from full-time teaching in September of 2015.