Oren Gross

Oren Gross

  • Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Irving Younger Professor of Law

Degrees

  • Tel Aviv University, LL.B.
  • Harvard University LL.M., S.J.D.

Expertise

  • Business Law
  • International Law
  • International Trade
  • Israel & the Middle-East
  • Law of War
Show all

Professor Oren Gross is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Irving Younger Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of international law and national security law. He is also an expert on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Professor Gross holds an LL.B. degree magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University (graduating 1st in his class) where he served on the editorial board of the Tel Aviv University Law Review. He obtained LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School while a Fulbright Scholar.

Professor Gross was a member of the faculty of the Tel Aviv University Law School in Israel from 1996 to 2002. He has taught and held visiting positions at Harvard Law School (where he held the position of Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems in 2012-13); Princeton University; Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; the Max Planck Institute for International Law and Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg, Germany; the Transitional Justice Institute in Belfast (while a British Academy visiting professor); Queen's University in Belfast; the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain); and Brandeis University. Professor Gross has received numerous academic awards and scholarships, including a Fulbright scholarship and British Academy and British Council awards.

Between 1986 and 1991, Professor Gross served as a senior legal advisory officer in the international law branch of the Israeli Defense Forces' Judge Advocate General's Corps. In 1998, he served as the legal adviser to an Israeli delegation that negotiated an agreement with the Palestinian Authority's senior officials concerning the economic component of a permanent status agreement between Israel and Palestine.

Professor Gross's work has been published extensively. His articles appeared in leading academic journals such as the Yale Law Journal, Yale Journal of International Law, Michigan Journal of International Law, Texas International Law Journal, Minnesota Law Review, Florida Law Review, Cornell Law Review and others. His book, Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice, co-authored with Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2006 and was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Merit for Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship by the American Society of International Law in 2007. He also co-edited, with Professor Ní Aoláin, the volume, Guantanamo and Beyond: Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative Perspective, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013.

Professor Gross joined the University of Minnesota in 2002 and was appointed the Vance K. Opperman Research Scholar in 2003 and the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law in 2004. In 2004 he was also the recipient of the John K. & Elsie Lampert Fesler Research Grant. He was appointed as the Irving Younger Professor of Law in 2005.

In 2017, Professor Gross was awarded the Stanley V. Kinyon Tenured Faculty of the Year Award, University of Minnesota Law School.

Professor Gross practiced law at Sullivan and Cromwell in New York in 1995-1996 and is a member of both the New York and Israeli bars. In 2008 he joined the American Law Institute as an elected member.

Journal of International Law: Research and Writing


Contracts


Minnesota Journal of International Law Editor


Books

Guantanamo and Beyond: Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2013) (co-editor)
Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2006) (recipient of the American Society of International Law's 2007 Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship)

Journal Articles

What Both Hart and Fuller Got Wrong, 11 Wake Forest Law Review Online 54 (2021)
Unresolved Legal Questions Concerning Operation Inherent Resolve, 52 Texas International Law Journal 221 (2017)
Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Humanitarian Interventions: A Reply to Devon Whittle, 26 European Journal of International Law 699 (2015)  
Cyber Responsibility to Protect: Legal Obligations of States Directly Affected by Cyber-Incidents, 48 Cornell International Law Journal 481 (2015)    
The New Way of War: Is There a Duty to Use Drones?, 67 Florida Law Review 1 (2015)
The Rhetoric of War: Words, Conflict, and Categorization Post 9/11, 24 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 241 (2014)
Venerate, Amend...and Violate, 46 Arizona State Law Journal 1151 (2014)
The Process of Balancing, 45 Tulsa Law Review 733 (2010) (reviewing Laura K. Donohue, The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics, and Liberty (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and James E. Baker, In the Common Defense: National Security Law for Perilous Times (Cambridge University Press, 2007)) (review essay)
A Skeptical View of Deference to the Executive in Times of Crisis, 41 Israel Law Review 545 (2008)
Torture and an Ethics of Responsibility, 3 Law, Culture and the Humanities 35 (2007)
What Emergency Regime?, 13 Constellations 74 (2006)
Are Torture Warrants Warranted? Pragmatic Absolutism and Official Disobedience, 88 Minnesota Law Review 1481 (2004)
Chaos and Rules: Should Responses to Violent Crises Always Be Constitutional?, 112 Yale Law Journal 1011 (2003)
Providing for the Unexpected: Constitutional Emergency Provisions, 33 Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 13 (2003)
Emergency, War and International Law - Another Perspective, 70 Nordic Journal of International Law 29 (2001)
From Discretion to Scrutiny: Revisiting the Application of the Margin of Appreciation Doctrine in the Context of Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, 23 Human Rights Quarterly 625 (2001)
Mending Walls: The Economic Aspects of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, 15 American University International Law Review 1539 (2000)
The Israeli-Palestinian Economic Permanent Status Agreement and Trade Regime, 47 Riv`on le-khalkalah (Economic Quarterly) 50 (2000)
(with
Eli Sagi
)
The Normless and Exceptionless Exception: Carl Schmitt's Theory of Emergency Powers and the "Norm-Exception" Dichotomy, 21 Cardozo Law Review 1825 (2000)
"Once More unto the Breach": The Systemic Failure of Applying the European Convention on Human Rights to Entrenched Emergencies, 23 Yale Journal of International Law 437 (1998)
The Grave Breaches System and the Armed Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia, 16 Michigan Journal of International Law 783 (1995)
The Military Courts' System in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, 5 Monthly Review (1989)

Book Chapters

Legal Obligations of the Directly Affected State Before, During and After Cyber-Incidents, in Cyberspace and General International Law: Peacetime Rights and Obligations of States in Cyberspace (Martin Ney & Andreas Zimmermann, eds., Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
Hitler's Willing Law Professors, in The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich 361 (Bernard M. Levinson & Robert P. Ericksen, eds., Indiana University Press, 2022)
The Collaboration of the Intellectuals: Legal Academia and the Third Reich, in Collaboration in Authoritarian and Armed Conflict Settings 179 (Juan Espindola & Leigh A. Payne, eds., Oxford University Press, 2022)
Emergency’s Challenges, in Constitutionalism Under Extreme Conditions: Law, Emergency, Exception 427 (Richard Albert & Yaniv Roznai, eds., Springer, 2020)
The Normal Exception, in Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? 585 (Mark A. Graber, Sanford Levinson & Mark Tushnet, eds., Oxford University Press, 2018)
Emergency Powers, in The Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution 785 (Mark Tushnet, Mark A. Graber & Sanford Levinson, eds., Oxford University Press, 2015)
The Trial of Terrorism: National Security Courts and Beyond, in Routledge Handbook of Law and Terrorism 206-221 (Genevieve Lennon & Clive Walker, eds., Routledge, 2015)
Security vs. Liberty: On Emotions and Cognition, in The Long Decade: How 9/11 Changed the Law 45 (David Jenkins, Amanda Jacobsen & Anders Henriksen, eds., Oxford University Press, 2014)
Introduction: Guantanamo and Beyond, in Guantanamo and Beyond: Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative Perspective 1-34 (Fionnuala Ni Aolain & Oren Gross, eds, Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Violating Divine Law: Emergency Measures in Jewish Law, in Extra-Legal Power and Legitimacy: Perspectives on Prerogative 52 (Clement Fatovic & Benjamin A. Kleinerman, eds., Oxford University Press, 2013)
Constitutions and Emergency Regimes, in Comparative Constitutional Law 334 (Tom Ginsburg & Rosalind Dixon, eds., Edward Elgar, 2011)
Security vs. Liberty: An Imbalanced Balancing, in Uppsala-Minnesota Colloquium: Law, Culture and Values 283 (Mattias Dahlberg, ed., Iustus, 2009)
Extra-legality and the Ethic of Political Responsibility, in Emergencies and the Limits of Legality 60 (Victor Ramraj, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008)
"Control Systems" and the Migration of Anomalies, in Migration of Constitutional Ideas (Sujit Chowdhury, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Preventive Interrogational Torture, in The Global War on Terrorism: Executive Branch Challenges in Forming Counterterrorism Policy 107 (Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University, 2006)
The Concept of "Crisis": What Can We Learn from the Two Dictatorships of L. Quinctius Cincinnatus?, in Diritti Civili ed Economici in Tempi di Crisi: Atti del Congresso Internazionale (Stresa, 13-14 maggio 2005) 21 (Giuffrè, 2006)
Stability and Flexibility: A Dicey Business, in Global Anti-Terrorism Law and Policy (Victor Ramraj, Michael Hor & Kent Roach, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2005)
The Prohibition on Torture and the Limits of the Law, in Torture: A Collection 229 (Sanford Levinson, ed., Oxford University Press, 2004)
Constitution and Crisis: The Use of Emergency Powers in the United States, in American Democracy: The Real, The Imagined and the False 196 (Arnon Gutfeld, ed., Zemorah-Bitan, 2002)
Cutting Down Trees: Law-Making Under the Shadow of Great Calamities, in The Security of Freedom: Essays on Canada's Anti-Terrorism Bill 39 (Ronald J. Daniels, Patrick Macklem & Kent Roach, eds., University of Toronto Press, 2001)
On Terrorists and Other Criminals: States of Emergency and the Criminal Legal System, in Directions in Criminal Liability: Inquiries in the Theory of Criminal Law 409 (Eli Lederman, ed., Israel Bar Association & Tel-Aviv University, 2001)
Regional Trade Arrangements in the Service of Peace in the Middle East, in Regional Cooperation in a Global Context 101 (Raphael Bar-El, Ehud Menipaz & Gilbert Benhayoun, eds., Harmattan, 2000)
(with
Eli Sagi
)
Extremist and Terrorist Organizations, in First Judgments: Reflections upon Decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court During the First Year of Israel's Independence 77 (Daphne Barak-Erez, ed., ha-Kibuts ha-meuhad, 1999)
To Know Where We Are Going, We Need to Know Where We Are: Revisiting States of Emergency, in A Human Rights Agenda for the 21st Century 79 (Angela Hegarty & Siobhan Leonard, eds., Cavendish Publishing Limited, 1999)

Book Reviews

Enemy Among Us, New York Law Journal Magazine 37 (2004) (reviewing David Cole, Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (New Press, 2003))
Book Review, 9 Constellations 286 (2002) (reviewing Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice: Law and Politics in Times of Transition (Oxford University Press, 2000))
Book Review, 6 (no. 1) European Journal of International Law 152 (1995) (reviewing Effecting Compliance (Armed Conflict and the New Law, vol.2) (Hazel Fox & Michael A. Meyer, eds., British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 1993))
Book Review, 6 (no. 1) European Journal of International Law 156 (1995) (reviewing Jalil Kasto, Ius Cogens and Humanitarian Law (published by the author, 1994))
Book Review, 6 (no. 1) European Journal of International Law 157 (1995) (reviewing Edward McWhinney, Judge Shigeru Oda and the Progressive Development of International Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1993))

Editorials, Commentary & Letters

Commentary: Torture Must be Investigated, CNNPolitics.com, Apr. 30, 2009
CUPE Ontario's proposed boycott of Israeli academics is just plain anti-Semitic, Globe & Mail, Apr. 9, 2009 (op-ed)
Misguided Response, 27 Boston Review 16 (2002)

Other Publications

Autonomous Systems & the Ethics of Conflict, 2020 Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs 74 (2020) (panelist)
(with
Ben Jones
,
Micah Clark
and
Claire Finkelstein
)
Chess in Literature, The Colophon 7 (2005)
Torture, Violence, and the Global War on Terror: Lecture Commentary, 99 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 407 (2005)
Faculty Advisor
Minnesota Journal of International Law