Biography
As a scholar of international and comparative law, legal philosophy, and human rights, Helen Stacy has produced works analyzing the efficacy of regional courts in promoting human rights, differences in the legal systems of neighboring countries, and the impact of postmodernism on legal thinking. Her recent scholarship has focused on the efforts of Romania, Mexico, and Thailand to improve their court systems and their policing as part of rule of law reforms.
In addition to her role at the law school, Stacy is a senior research scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. She is also a researcher with the European Forum at the Freeman Spogli Institute, a member of the Committee in Charge of the Program in Modern Thought and Literature, and is associated with the Center for African Studies. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2005, Stacy was a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology School of Law, a senior prosecutor for the Director of Public Prosecutions in London, and a legal officer for Shell Oil in Australia.
Key Works
- Helen Stacy, Humanitarian Intervention and Relation Sovereignty, in Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture, Stephen Lee, ed., Springer, 2006.
- Helen Stacy, Relational Sovereignty, 55 Stanford Law Review 2029 (2003).
- Helen Stacy, Western Triumphalism: The Crisis of Human Rights in the Global Era 2 Macquarie University Law Review 193 (2002).
- Helen Stacy, Postmodernism and Law: Jurisprudence in a Fragmenting World, Aldershot ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate/Dartmouth, 2001.
- Helen Stacy and M. Lavarch, eds., Beyond the Adversarial System, Sydney, Australia: Federation Press, 1999.
Publications & Cases
- Helen Stacy, Human Rights for the 21st Century: Sovereignty, Civil Society, Culture, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.
- Helen Stacy, Universal Human Rights: World Scale Stages, in World Scale Ambitions? D. Polumbo-Liu, ed., Raleigh-Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.
- Helen Stacy, Liberation Theology: Democracy Promotion and Invasion, 7 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 318 (2007).
- Helen Stacy, Humanitarian Intervention and Relation Sovereignty, in Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture, Stephen Lee, ed., Springer, 2006.
- Helen M. Stacy. The Human Rights and the Ethic of Listening in Universal Human Rights: Moral Order In A Divided World, David A. Reidy and Mortimer N.S. Sellers, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.
- Helen M. Stacy. International Human Rights in a Fragmenting World in Human Rights With Modesty: The Problem Of Universalism, András Sajó, ed., Boston: M. Nijhoff Publishers, 2004.
- Helen Stacy, Relational Sovereignty, 55 Stanford Law Review 2029 (2003).
- Helen Stacy, Western Triumphalism: The Crisis of Human Rights in the Global Era 2 Macquarie University Law Review 193 (2002).
- Helen Stacy, Postmodernism and Law: Jurisprudence in a Fragmenting World, Aldershot ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate/Dartmouth, 2001.
- Helen Stacy and M. Lavarch, eds., Beyond the Adversarial System, Sydney, Australia: Federation Press, 1999.
Affiliations & Honors
>Professional Affiliations
- Associate Faculty, Center for Africa Studies
- Research Affiliate, European Forum, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
- Senior Research Scholar, Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
- Member, American Association of International Law
- Member, American Society of Legal and Social Philosophy
- Member, Global Justice Workshop, Humanities Center

- hstacy@stanford.edu
- 650 724.7496
Education
- LLB, University of Adelaide, 1980
- GDLP (Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice), University of South Australia, 1981
- PhD, Griffith University, 1995
Expertise
- International Human Rights
- International Jurisprudence
- International Law
- Legal and Social Theory