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: Latosha Davis
410.837.4689
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 1006
Education
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School
B.A., cum laude, Harvard College
Areas of Expertise
Women and International Law
Conflict od Laws
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 has taught a variety of International Law topics, as well as Civil Procedure and Conflict of Laws. She is the recipient of the 2018 UB Law Excellence in Teaching Award.
Her scholarship, involving international courts and tribunals, women and international law, judicial selection, and legitimacy, is found in top international law publications, including the American Journal of International Law and the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law, and she is currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook on Women and International Law. Grossman has presented her work at annual meetings of the American and European Societies of International Law, the Harvard-Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum, in the Organization of American States, and at side events before the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, International Law Week, and the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court.
Grossman was nominated by the United States and elected to the Inter-American Juridical Committee of the Organization of American States in 2024. She is the first woman, and the first Latina, from the United States to serve in this role. In 2024, she completed a three-year term on the American Society of International Law’s Executive Council, and previously served as elected co-chair of the Women in International Law (2019-2022), and International Courts and Tribunals (2014-2017) interest groups.
In 2023, Grossman served as Special Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Grossman has provided legal advice to states in cases before international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, and in 2017, she was named to an Independent Panel of Experts to evaluate candidates and formulate recommendations on selection procedures for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Grossman is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Research Fellow. She clerked for Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, also known as the “Rocket Docket.” She is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and has working knowledge of French.
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)