Sujit Choudhry

Sujit Choudhry is a lawyer, legal scholar, and expert in comparative constitutional law.

He is also an internationally recognized authority on comparative constitutional law. For over 20 years, he has been an advisor for constitution building, governance and rule of law processes, including in Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Myanmar, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine and Yemen. He has lectured or spoken in three dozen countries. As a leading expert on the Canadian constitution, Sujit has published over 100 articles, book chapters, working papers, and reports. His work has been cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Canada and other courts across Canada.

In 2016 Choudhry stepped down from his position as dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law after sexually harassing an executive assistant. The case resulted in Choudhry paying a $100,000 settlement but retaining his position on the faculty.

Early life

Choudhry was born in New Delhi in 1970.Constitutional Scholar Sujit Choudhry New Berkeley Law Dean by Susan Glass
/ref> He went to the University of Toronto Schools for high school. He received a B.Sc. in Biology from McGill University in 1992, a B.A. (with first-class honors) in Law from the University of Oxford's University College, in 1994, before attending the University of Toronto, graduating with an LL.B. (with honors) in 1996, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1998. He was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, and had a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship from Harvard University and the William E. Taylor Memorial Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Scholarship

Choudhry is an author of the books ''The Migration of Constitutional Ideas'', ''Dilemmas of Solidarity'', ''Constitutional Design for Divided Societies'', ''Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution'', ''Constitution-Making'', ''Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions'' and ''Security Sector Reform in Constitutional Transitions''.

Choudhry co-authored a report titled "Semi-Presidentialism and Inclusive Governance in Ukraine" with Thomas Sedelius and Julia Kyrychenko which was presented in April 2018 before Ukrainian constitutional experts in Kyiv. He is the Director of the Center for Constitutional Transitions.

Sexual harassment complaint and lawsuit

In March 2015, when Choudhry was dean of University of California, Berkeley School of Law, he was accused of sexual harassment by his executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell. Chaudhry did not dispute that the conduct had occurred, but only disputed how often the conduct occurred. The university's office for the prevention of harassment and discrimination concluded that Choudhry's behavior had violated campus sexual harassment policies.

In March 2016, Sorrell filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Choudhry in the Alameda County Superior Court, and against the Regents of the University of California for their failure to respond effectively to her complaint against Choudhry. Choudhry thereafter went on an indefinite leave of absence from his position as dean, but continued to remain a member of faculty. His return to the Berkeley campus in September 2016 as a member of faculty was met by student protests. The lawsuit resulted in settlement agreements, under which Choudhry agreed to pay a total of $50,000 to Sorrell's attorneys, a contribution that his lawyer William Taylor called "relatively minimal." Choudhry also agreed to pay $50,000 to charities of Sorrell's choice.

Academic service

Choudhry was the first person of Indian origin to be named dean of a top US law school, and the first I. Michael Heyman Professor of Law at Berkeley's School of Law. He was also a recipient of the Trudeau Fellowship and the South Asian Bar Associations of Southern California (SABA-SC) and Northern California (SABA-NC) each awarded him the "Trailblazer Award".

In 2010, the Trudeau Foundation awarded Choudhry a Trudeau Fellowship. The South Asian Bar Association of Toronto named Choudhry Practitioner of the Year in 2011. In 2015, the South Asian Bar Associations of Southern California (SABA-SC) and Northern California (SABA-NC) each awarded Choudhry the "Trailblazer Award".

Choudhry is the Director of the Center for Constitutional Transitions. The Center for Constitutional Transitions partnered with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) on preparing a set of thematic research reports on constitutional design for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) post Arab Spring. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has cited Choudhry's work in its reports.

In 2005, Choudhry helped to draft a letter to the Canadian Parliament arguing that a proposal to outlaw same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhry, Sujit
Canadian legal scholars
Canadian scholars of constitutional law
Scholars of constitutional law
UC Berkeley School of Law faculty
Deans of UC Berkeley School of Law
Harvard Law School alumni
University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni
Alumni of University College, Oxford
McGill University Faculty of Science alumni
Indian emigrants to Canada
People from New Delhi
1970 births
Living people