Neha Jain Named Buffett Institute Deputy Director

We are delighted to announce that Professor Neha Jain has agreed to serve as Deputy Director of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs for a four-year term, effective 1 October 2024. Professor Jain is a brilliant scholar and wonderful leader, and we are excited about the difference that she will make in this role.

A specialist in international law, criminal law and human rights law, Jain is Professor of Law at the Pritzker School of Law and a Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute.  She was recruited to Northwestern in 2023 from the European University Institute, where she served both as Professor of Public International Law and Co-Director of the Academy of European Law. Jain is also a permanent visiting professor at MOBILE, the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Excellence for Global Mobility Law at the University of Copenhagen. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Graz, the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge.

Jain has served international law societies in a variety of roles, including as a member of the American Society of International Law’s Executive Council and Executive Committee.  She is also former Vice-President of the European Society of International Law and Co-Chair of its Strategic Consultative Panel defining strategic objectives and priorities for the future of the Society.

As Buffett's Deputy Director, Professor Jain will help to guide the Institute's strategic priorities. She will further Buffett’s work as a hub for global engagement across Northwestern’s dozen Schools and build relationships with external stakeholders to bring the university’s policy-relevant international research to bear on the urgent problems of our time.

Please join us in congratulating and thanking Professor Jain. We look forward to welcoming her into this new role at Buffett, and eagerly anticipate the new initiatives she will bring to Northwestern. 

Deborah Cohen
Director of the Buffett Institute
Richard W. Leopold Professor of History

Hari Osofsky 
Dean and Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law 
Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture (courtesy)