Anna Spain Bradley

Professor of Law
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Anna Spain Bradley is the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCLA and a Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. She specializes in international law, international human rights, and international dispute resolution. Her current research focuses on global understandings of racism as a violation of human rights, which is the topic of her forthcoming book Global Racism (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) informed by her recent service as a legal expert to the United Nations on these matters. She is the author of Human Choice in International Law (Cambridge University Press, June 2021) and International Dispute Resolution (Carolina Academic Press, with Mary Ellen O’Connell and Amy J. Cohen, 2021) in addition to numerous law review articles and scholarly works.

In 2021, Spain Bradley was elected Vice President of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and was re-elected in 2022 to a second term. She previously served on the ASIL Executive Council. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, and a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders International. She is a recipient of the 2014 American Society of International Law’s Francis Lieber Award for her law review article The U.N. Security Council’s Duty to Decide (Harvard National Security Journal).

Prior to joining UCLA, Professor Spain Bradley served as Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity (2017-2020) and a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. She previously practiced international law as an Attorney-Adviser at the U.S. Department of State Office of the Legal Adviser where she received two Meritorious Honor Awards for her work representing the U.S. before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague and as a delegate to the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva. Professor Spain Bradley also has policy experience working on climate change at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and on international trade agreements at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Denison University.

Education

  • B.A. Denison University
  • J.D. Harvard Law School

Books

  • Global Racism. Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
  • Human Choice in International Law. Cambridge University Press (2021). Book info
  • International Dispute Resolution: Cases and Materials (with Mary Ellen O’Connell and Amy J. Cohen). 3rd ed. Carolina Academic Press (2021). Book Info

Articles & Chapters

  • Advancing Neuroscience in International Law, in International Law as Behavior, (edited by Harlan Cohen and Timothy Meyer, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2021).
  • Human Rights Racism, 32 Harvard Human Rights Journal 1 (2019). Full Text
  • The Disruptive Neuroscience of Judicial Choice, 9 UC Irvine Law Review 1 (2018). Full Text
  • Cognitive Competence in Executive-Branch Decision Making, 49 Connecticut Law Review 713 (2017). Full Text
  • African Women Leaders and the Advancement of Peacebuilding in International Law, in Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements And Actions, 120 (edited by Jeremy Levitt, Cambridge University Press, 2015). Full Text
  • Deciding to Intervene, 51 Houston Law Review 847 (2014). Full Text
  • The U.N. Security Council’s Duty to Decide, 4 Harvard National Security Journal 320 (2013). Full Text
  • International Dispute Resolution in an Era of Globalization in International Law, in The New Age of Globalization, 41 (edited by Andrew Byrnes, Mika Hayashi, and Christopher Michaelsen, Martinus Nijhoff Publications, 2013). Full Text
  • Beyond Adjudication: Resolving International Resource Disputes in an Era of Climate Change, 30 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 343 (2011).
  • Examining the International Judicial Function: International Courts as Dispute Resolvers, 34 Loyola Of Los Angeles International And Comparative Law Review 5 (2011). Full Text
  • Integration Matters: Rethinking the Architecture of International Dispute Resolution, 32 University Of Pennsylvania Journal Of International Law 1 (2010). Reprinted in part in International Dispute Resolution: Cases And Materials (edited by Mary Ellen O’Connell, Carolina Academic Press, 2012). Full Text
  • Using International Dispute Resolution to Address the Compliance Question in International Law, 40 Georgetown Journal of International Law 807 (2009).

Book Reviews

  • Book Review, 112 American Journal of International Law 330 (2018). Review of The Internationalists: How A Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World, by Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro (Simon & Schuster, 2017).
  • Book Review, 111 American Journal of International Law 210 (2017). Review of The Puzzle of Peace, by Gary Goertz, Paul F. Diehl, and Alexandru Balas (Oxford University Press, 2016).
  • Book Review, 108 American Journal of International Law 140 (2014). Review of Diplomatic and Judicial Means of Dispute Settlement, edited by Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Marcelo G. Kohen and Jorge E. Vinûales (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013).

Commentaries

  • International Law’s Racism Problem, Opinio Juris (Sept. 4, 2019). Full Text
  • Mock Debate: Is the Primacy of the ICJ in International Dispute Settlement in Decline?, Report by Chester Brown, American Society of International Law Proceedings of the 110th Annual Meeting 191 (2016).
  • Judges, Diplomats, and Peacebuilders: Evaluating International Dispute Resolution as a System, American Society Of International Law Proceedings of the 108th Annual Meeting 271 (2015).
  • Sovereignty and the Promotion of Peace in Non-International Armed Conflict, American Society of International Law Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting 78 (2013).
  • Who’s Going to Copenhagen: The Rise of Civil Society in International Treaty-Making, American Society of International Law Insights (Dec. 11, 2009).
  • The Many Pathways of International Law, in Careers in International Law: A Guide to Career Paths and Internships in International Law (American Society of International Law, 2009-2010 edition).
  • Guest Blogger, IntLawGrrls (2009-2014). Available here