Biography

David Law is an internationally recognized expert in the comparative study of public law and courts, a pioneer in the application of empirical social science methods to the study of legal texts, and one of the most cited law and social science scholars in the country. His scholarship combines qualitative fieldwork on judicial and constitutional systems, quantitative analysis of constitutions and treaties, and regional expertise on Asia. Law’s work has been featured in a variety of international media and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Romanian. 

Before joining the Virginia faculty, he held the Sir Y.K. Pao Chair in Public Law at the University of Hong Kong and the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. He has also taught or served on the faculties of the University of California, San Diego (in the political science department); the University of California, Irvine; the University of San Diego; Keio University (as a Hitachi Fellow); National Taiwan University (as a Fulbright Scholar); Seoul National University; Universidad Externado de Colombia; Georgetown University Law Center; and Princeton University (as the Martin and Kathleen Crane Fellow in Law and Public Affairs). He earned his B.A. in public policy and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University, his J.D. from Harvard Law School, and his B.C.L. in European and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford.