Professor of Law
Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law
ngrossman@ubalt.edu
410.837.4529
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, AL 512
Administrative Assistant: Deborah Pinkham
410.837.4634
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 502
Education
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School
B.A., cum laude, Harvard College
Areas of Expertise
Public International Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Human Rights
Nienke Grossman is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she teaches Civil Procedure, International Law, and Women’s Human Rights. Her scholarship, focusing primarily on international courts and legitimacy, and judicial selection and sex representation, is found in top international law publications, including the American Journal of International Law and the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law. In 2018, she co-edited "Legitimacy and International Courts," published by Cambridge University Press.
She has presented her work at various law faculties in the United States and abroad, as well as at the American Society of International Law's (ASIL) Annual Meeting and Research Forum, the European Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting, the Harvard-Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum, the University of Cambridge’s Lauterpacht Centre, before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in Geneva, and at side events during International Law Week at the UN in New York.
In 2019, Prof. Grossman was elected to a three-year term as co-chair of the Women in International Law Interest Group (WILIG) of ASIL. Prof. Grossman was co-chair of the 900+ ASIL International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, she was appointed to an Independent Panel of Experts convened by non-governmental human rights organizations to evaluate candidates to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and to make recommendations for improving selection procedures to the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Also, Prof. Grossman has provided legal advice to Latin American states in cases before the International Court of Justice. In addition, she is a Strategic Advisor to Gqual, a group dedicated to increasing the percentage of women on international law-making bodies.
Prior to entering academia, Prof. Grossman was a Research Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, an Associate in Foley Hoag LLP’s international litigation practice, and a law clerk to U.S. Federal District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, in the Eastern District of Virginia. Prof. Grossman is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center.
Selected Publications
Articles and Essays
“Populism, International Courts, and Women’s Human Rights,” 35 Md. J. Int’l L. (2020) (Symposium contribution).
“Feminist Approaches to International Adjudication,” in Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (2019) (peer reviewed).
Book Review, Cameron A. Miles, Provisional Measures before International Courts and Tribunals (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 113(4) Am. J. Int’l L. 871 (2019).
“Solomonic Judgments and the Legitimacy of the International Court of Justice” in Legitimacy and International Courts (Harlan Cohen, Andreas Follesdal, Nienke Grossman & Geir Ulfstein, eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
“Legitimacy of International Courts: A Framework,” in Legitimacy and International Courts (Cohen et al., eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2018) (co-authored).
“Judge Julia Sebutinde: An Unbreakable Cloth,” in International Courts and the African Woman Judge: Unveiled Narratives (Josephine Dawuni & Akua Kuenyehia, eds.) (Routledge Press, 2017).
“Shattering the Glass Ceiling in International Adjudication,” 56 Va. J. Int’l L. 339 (2016).
“Achieving Sex Representative International Court Benches,” 110 Am. J. Int’l L. 82 (2016).
“The Limits of Judicial Mechanisms for Developing and Enforcing International Environmental Norms,” Proceedings of the 109th Annual Meeting, American Society of International Law 189 (2015) (with Jacqueline Peel).
“Do Women Judges Matter to the Legitimacy of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights?,” in The Selection Process of the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights: Reflections on Necessary Reforms, Center for Justice and International Law (December 2014).
“The Normative Legitimacy of International Courts,” 86 Temple L. Rev. 61 (2013).
“International Decisions: Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia),” 107 Am. J. Int’l L. 396 (Spring 2013).
“Sex on the Bench: Do Women Judges Matter to the Legitimacy of International Courts?,” 12 Chi. J. Int’l L. 647 (2012).
“Legitimacy and the Balance of the Sexes on International Court Benches,” Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting, American Society of International Law 452 (2012).
“Sex Representation on the Bench: Legitimacy and International Criminal Courts,” 11 Int’l Crim. L. Rev. 453 (2011).
“Legitimacy and International Adjudicative Bodies,” 41 G. W. Int’l L. Rev. 107 (2009).
“Rehabilitation or Revenge: Prosecuting Child Soldiers for Human Rights Violations,” 38 G’town J. Int’l L. 323 (2007).
Articles on Social Science Research Network
Selective Talks and Presentations
Presenter, National Nominations Procedures for Selection of International Criminal Court Judges, United Nations Side Event, New York, NY, February 5, 2020
Roundtable Participant, Women Judges on International and National Courts, The Association of American Law Schools, Washington, DC, January 2, 2020
Panelist, Selection Procedures on the International Criminal Court, United Nations International Law Week, New York, NY, October 31, 2019
Presenter, Populism, International Courts and Gender, University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD, October 18, 2019
Moderator, Exploring Comparative Perspectives on #MeToo, Center on Applied Feminism, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, April 12, 2019
Presenter, Feminist Approaches to International Adjudication, Women in International Law Interest Group, American Society of International Law Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 29, 2019
Panelist, “Gender and Racial Diversity Before International Courts and Tribunals,” ABA International Law Section, Spring Meeting, New York, NY, April 19, 2018
Panelist, Legitimacy and International Courts: Book Launch, American Society of International Law, Washington, DC, April 5, 2018
Panelist, Unveiling Narratives of International Courts and the African Women Judge: Book Launch, Women in Public Service Project, Wilson Center, Washington, DC, March 12, 2018
Panelist, Meeting on UN Treaty Bodies Elections, International Disability Alliance, Geneva (remote participation), December 12, 2017
Panelist, Global Voices in International Law: International Courts and Women Judges, Global Women’s Leadership Initiative, Wilson Center, Washington, DC, December 5, 2017
Roundtable Participant, “Equidad de género y balance geográfico y de sistemas legales en la composición de la CIDH y la Corte IDH,” Inter-American Forum, Organization of American States, Washington, DC, December 5, 2017 (in Spanish)
Panelist and Rapporteur of Working Group on Achieving Gender Parity on the International Court of Justice, Gqual Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, October 3-5, 2017
Presenter and Co-Author, Final Report of the Independent Panel for the Election of Commissioners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,” Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico, June 16, 2017 (in Spanish)