Michael Bazyler
- Education:
- University of California, Los Angeles, Bachelor of Arts
University of Southern California, Juris Doctor
Biography
Michael Bazyler is professor of law and the 1939 Law Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies. He is holder of previous fellowships at Harvard Law School and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In fall 2006, he was a Research Fellow at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority of Israel) and the holder of the Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Chair for the Study of Racism, Antisemitism and the Holocaust. Before joining Chapman in 2008, he was a professor for 25 years at Whittier Law School. He received his B.A. from UCLA and his JD from USC.
Professor Bazyler is the author of seven books and more than two dozen law review articles, book chapters and essays on subjects covering Law and the Holocaust, restitution following genocide and other mass atrocities, public international law, international human rights law, and international trade law and comparative law. His work has been published in such journals as The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Kansas Law Review, Arizona Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, University of Richmond Law Review, Stanford Journal of International Law, Berkeley Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and Fordham Journal of International Law.
Over his 30-plus years teaching law, Professor Bazyler has been a visiting professor at various law schools in the United States, Australia, Russia, Belarus and Israel, teaching Comparative Law, Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Business Litigation, International Business Transactions, Criminal Law, Torts, and a course he created entitled Holocaust, Genocide and the Law.
In spring 2007, Professor Bazyler held the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, teaching Comparative Law and Holocaust, Genocide and the Law. He is a leading authority on the use of American and European courts to redress genocide and other historical wrongs. Professor Bazyler co-authored Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust (New York University Press, 2014, softcover 2015) with Frank M. Tuerkheimer, reviewed in the New York Review of Books. His book, Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America's Courts (New York University Press, 2003, softcover 2005), was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and reviewed in the Harvard Law Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times (London), and The Economist. He is a contributor of chapters to various books on genocide and the law, and the co-editor/author with Roger Alford of Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and Its Legacy (New York University Press, 2006; softcover 2007).
His book, Holocaust, Genocide and the Law: A Quest for Justice in a Post-Holocaust World (Oxford University Press) is a winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award. His writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has testified in Congress before the House Reform Committee on the subject of Holocaust restitution. He has also been interviewed by CNN, 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, ABC News, Voice of America, the Australian Broadcasting Company, National Public Radio and the BBC. Bazyler has also delivered the Austin Owen Annual Lecture at the University of Richmond, the Feibel Family Annual Lecture at Ohio State University and the Einspruch Annual Lecture at the University of Texas, Dallas.
He is presently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Englangen-Nuremberg in Germany.
Courses Taught: Family Law, Ukraine War Law Practicum: Assisting Victims, Ukraine War Law Practicum: Prosecuting Perpetrators, Advanced Seminar: The Holocaust, Genocide and the Law.
Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications
-
In April 2022, a month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I co-founded with Fowler 1L student Laura Evans the Ukrainian Mothers and Children Transport (UMACTransport.org), a pro bono project to assist Ukrainians fleeing the war to enter the United States on the emergency immigration statuses of "Ukraine Humanitarian Parole" or "Ukraine Temporary Protective Status" The project continues to this day. By January 2024, UMACTransport has helped about two dozen Ukrainian refugees enter the United States. Our project has been featured in the LA Times, the ABA Journal, and the National Jurist. I was selected by AALS to its 2023 Pro Bono Honor Roll and Ms. Evans, now a graduating 3L, was selected as a Law Student of the Year by the National Jurist. Both Chapman and non-Chapman law students volunteer for this project and we have a panel of immigration attorneys assisting pro bono.
-
Comparative law: Global Legal Traditions (with Michael Bryant, Kristen Nelson, & Sermid al-Sarraf) (Carolina Academic Press 2021)
-
“Guided by the Terezin Declaration: a Review of Restitution of Stolen Jewish Property after the Holocaust” in Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: Systems in Place and Systems in the Making (Carla Ferstman & Mariana Goetz (Brill, 2nd Rev Ed. 2020)
-
"Guided by the Terezin Declaration: A Review of Restitution of Stolen Jewish Property After the Holocaust," in Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (Carla Ferstman & Marianna Goetz, eds.) (Brill, 2nd rev. ed. 2020
-
"Guided by the Terezin Declaration: A Review of Restitution of Stolen Jewish Property After the Holocaust," in Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (Carla Ferstman & Marianna Goetz, eds.) (Brill, 2nd rev. ed. 2020
-
Searching for Justice After the Holocaust: Fulfilling the Terezin Declaration and Immovable Property Restitution (Oxford University Press 2019) (with Katherine Boyd, Kristen Nelson and Rajika Shah)
-
Law and the Holocaust: U.S. Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press) (with Robert M. Jarvis) - FIRST AMERICAN LAW SCHOOL CASEBOOK PUBLISHED ON THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE LAW )
-
“Achieving A Measure of Justice and Writing Holocaust History Through American Restitution Litigation,” in Rethinking Holocaust Justice: Essays Across Disciplines (Norman J. W. Goda, ed) (Bergham Books 2017).
-
"Restitution of Private Property in Postwar Poland: The Unfinished Legacy of the Second World War and Communism," 41 Loyola int'l. & Comp. L. Rev. 273 (2018) (with Szymon Gostynski)
-
Searching for Justice After the Holocaust: Fulfilling the Terezin Declaration and Post-Holocaust Immovable Property Restitution (Oxford University Press 2019) (with Katherine Boyd, Kristen Nelson & Rajika Shah)
-
Law and the Holocaust: U.S. Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press 2017) (with Robert M. Jarvis) (first American law casebook on the Holocaust)
-
The Unfinished Business of the Armenian Genocide: American Property Restitution in American Courts," 23 Southwestern J. Int'l. L. 223 (with Rajika L. Shah)
-
“The Holocaust at Nuremberg: What the Record Reveals” 39 Loyola J. Int’l. & Comp. Law 35 (2017)
-
Holocaust, Genocide and the Law: A Quest for Justice in a Post-Holocaust World (Oxford UP) -- BOOK WON AWARD AS "BEST BOOK ON THE HOLOCAUST FOR 2016" FROM THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL
-
Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust (with Frank Tuerkheimer)
-
"The Strange and Curious History of the Law Used to Prosecute Adolf Eichmann," Loyola International Law and Comp. L Rev. (Spring 2013 publication) (with Julia Sheppach)
-
"Nuremberg-Era Jurisprudence Redux: The Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch and the Legal Legacy of Nuremberg," Charleston L. Rev (Spring 2013 publication date) (with Jennifer M. Green) "Who is a Nazi Collaborator: The Postwar Kapo Trials in Israel and the Defense of Duress," Creighton International Law Journal (Spring 2013 publication date) (with Alexandra Krasovec) "The Judicialization of International Atrocity Crimes: The Kharkov Trial of 1943" San Diego International Law Journal (Dec. 2012 expected publication) (with Kellyanne Gold) "The Strange and Curious History of the Law Used to Prosecute Adolf Eichmann," Loyola International and Comparative Law Review (November 2012 expected publication) (with Julia Sheppach)