Ann Elizabeth Mayer is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies in the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has also taught as a visitor at Yale University Law School (1997); at Georgetown University (1992); and at Princeton University (1983). She has taught law courses on subjects including law and policy in international business, globalization and human rights, comparative law, Islamic law in contemporary Middle Eastern legal systems, and introductions to U.S. law.
She earned a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan in 1978; a Certificate in Islamic and Comparative Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 1977; a J.D. from the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1975; an M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (Arabic and Persian) from the University of Michigan in 1966; and a B.A. in Honors German from the University of Michigan in 1964.
She has written extensively on issues of Islamic law in contemporary legal systems, comparative law, international law, and the problems of integrating international human rights law in domestic legal systems. A major portion of her scholarship concerns human rights issues in contemporary North Africa and the Middle East. She has published widely in law reviews and in scholarly journals and books concerned with comparative and international law and politics in contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Her book Islam and Human Rights. Tradition and Politics (Boulder: Westview, 2007) is now in its fourth edition.
Her interest in international human rights law encompasses the emergence of new ideas of corporate responsibility under international human rights law and the problems that come with transferring what were formerly state obligations to private actors.
A member of the Pennsylvania Bar, she consults widely on cases involving human rights issues and Middle Eastern law.
Education
PhD, University of Michigan, 1978; Certificate, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1977; JD, University of Pennsylvania, 1975; MA, University of Michigan, 1966; BA, University of Michigan, 1964
Recent Consulting
Human rights situation in post-liberation Kuwait, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 1991-92; Human rights issues in the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. Department of State, 1991-92; Human rights and Middle Eastern politics, CIA, 1996-97
Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
Fulbright Fellowship, Morocco, 1992; Tunisia, 1993; Residency at the Bellagio Center of the Rockfeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy April – May 1998
Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1977-present. Visiting appointments: Princeton University; Georgetown University; Yale University, University of Vienna
Other Positions
Summer Law Clerk, Goodman and Ewing, 1975; Summer Law Clerk, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews and Ingersoll, 1974
Professional Leadership
Member of the Council of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia of Princeton University, 2009-present
Member of the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Advancing Human Rights Series, 2002-present
Member of the Editorial Board of the Harvard Series in Islamic Law, 2000-present
