Karen J. Alter
Professor
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Alter's research focuses on the interaction between international organizations and domestic politics. Trained in comparative politics and international relations, her research employs historical institutionalist approaches to understand international judicial politics involving Europe, the United States and the Andean Community. Her book in progress, The New Terrain of International Law: International Courts in International Politics provides a framework for comparing and understanding the influence of the twenty existing international courts, and for thinking about how different domains of international politics are transformed through the creation of international courts. Alter is author of: The European Court’s Political Power (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Establishing the Supremacy of European Law: The Making of an International Rule of Law in Europe. (Oxford University Press, 2001). She has published articles in the International Organization, Comparative Political Studies, the American Journal of International Law, International Affairs, the European Journal of International Relations, European Union Politics, Law and Contemporary Problems and the European Journal of Public Policy. Fluent in Italian, French and German, Alter has been a visiting scholar at the Institute d'Etudes Politiques, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, Harvard University's Center for European Studies, Harvard Law School, Seikei University, the Sonderforschungsbereich of Universität Bremen, and the American Bar Foundation. Alter's research has been supported by the DAAD, the Chateaubriand fellowship, the German Marshall Fund and the Howard Foundation. Alter is on the editorial boards of European Union Politics and Law & Social Inquiry. Alter is an associate scholar at the Center for Law and Globalization at the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois, holds a courtesy appointment at Northwestern Law School, and is a member of the New York based Council on Foreign Relations.