Biography

Professor Jenny S. Martinez is a leading expert on international courts and tribunals, international human rights, and the laws of war. Her scholarship focuses on the role of courts and tribunals in advancing human rights, ranging from her work on the all-but-forgotten 19th-century international tribunals involved in the suppression of the trans-Atlantic slave trade through her work on contemporary institutions like the International Criminal Court and the role of courts in policing human rights abuses in the “war on terror.” An experienced litigator, she argued the 2004 case of Rumsfeld v. Padilla before the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to clarify the constitutional protections available to post-9/11 “enemy combatants” who are U.S. citizens. Professor Martinez was named to the National Law Journal’s list of “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40” and the American Lawyer’s “Young Litigators Fab Fifty.” She serves on the board of directors for the Open Society Justice Initiative and has served as a consultant on international human rights issues for both Human Rights First and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

Before joining the Stanford faculty in 2003, Professor Martinez was a senior research fellow at Yale University and an attorney at Jenner & Block. She clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer (BA ’59) of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; she was an associate legal officer for Judge Patricia Wald of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Key Works

• Jenny S. Martinez, Inherent Executive Powers: A Comparative Perspective, 116 Yale Law Journal 2480 (2006).
• Alison Martston Danner and Jenny S. Martinez, Guilty Associations: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Command Responsibility, and the Development of International Criminal Law, 93 California Law Review 75-169 (2005).
• Jenny S. Martinez, Towards an International Judicial System, 56 Stanford Law Review 429-529 (2003).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Civil Procedure
• Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
• International Human Rights

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Jenny S. Martinez, Patricia McGowan Wald, in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, Roger K. Newman, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Jenny S. Martinez, The Mess Left Behind, Room For Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, March 31, 2009.
• Jenny S. Martinez, Flexibility With Truth Commissions, Room For Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, March 2, 2009.
• Jenny S. Martinez, Antislavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law, 117 Yale Law Journal 550 (2008).
• Jack L. Goldsmith, Jenny S. Martinez, Charles Fried and Jack M. Balkin, Questions of Justice, New York Times, October 17, 2007, pg. A27.
• Jenny S. Martinez, Slave Trade on Trial: Lessons of a Great Human Rights Law Success, Boston Review, September/October 2007.
• Jenny S. Martinez, The Real Verdict on Jose Padilla, Washington Post, Friday, August 17, 2007; p. A23.
• Jenny S. Martinez, Curbing Misuse of the "Enemy Combatant" Provision, Washington Post, July 6, 2007, p. A14.
• Jenny S. Martinez, The Law of Torture, in Torture, Human Rights and Terrorism, Working Paper 17, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California at Berkeley (2007).
• Jenny S. Martinez, The Military Commissions Act and "Torture Lite": Something for a Great Nation to be Proud Of? 48 Harvard International Law Journal 58 (2007).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Team Member, Council on Foreign Relations
• Member, American Society of International Law
• Member, Program Committee for American Society of International Law Centennial Conference

Honors and Awards

• Honoree, National Law Journal's "Top 40 Lawyers Under 40", 2005
• Honoree, Daily Recorder, California "Top 20 Lawyers Under 40", 2006