Biography

Jenny Martinez’s scholarship makes the first major attempt to analyze the ramifications of the increasing number of international tribunals operating in a globalized environment, but without any supervening sovereign authority to which they are all bound. 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 has also served as a consultant for both Human Rights First and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2003, she was a senior research fellow at Yale University and an attorney at Jenner & Block. She clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and 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).

In the News

• Mistrial Is Declared For 6 Men In Sears Tower Terror Case
  The New York Times, April 17, 2008
• Stanford Awards $1 Million To Research Teams
  Palo Alto Online, March 12, 2008
• A Terror Threat In The Courts
  The New York Times, January 13, 2008
• CIA Tapes Commentary
  KGO-TV Ch. 7, December 07, 2007

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Civil Procedure
• International Human Rights
• Transnational Law: Introduction

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• 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).
• Jenny S. Martinez, Understanding Mens Rea in Command Responsibility from Yamashita to Blaskic and Beyond, 5 International Criminal Justice 638 (2007).
• Jenny S. Martinez, Inherent Executive Powers: A Comparative Perspective, 116 Yale Law Journal 2480 (2006).
• William J. Aceves, Kevin R. Sullivan, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Jenny S. Martinez and Allen S. Weiner, Brief of Amici Curiae Bar Associations, Human Rights Organizations and Other Legal Groups in Support of Petitioners: Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon/Bustillo v. Johnson, Case No. 04-10566; 05-51 in the Supreme Court of the United States (December 2005).

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