Gayl S. Westerman

  • Professor of Law Emeritus

Education

BA, Stanford University
MS, University of Pennsylvania
JD, Pace Law School
LLM, Yale Law School
JSD, Yale Law School

Professor Gayl Westerman taught courses in International Law, Contracts, Commercial Law, and the Prosecution of War Crimes and was the director of International Programs. Professor Westerman served as the Charles A. Frueauff Research Professor of Law during the 1993–1994 and 1999–2000 academic years. Her legal scholarship focused primarily on the law of the sea. Professor Westerman’s books include The Juridical Bay (1987, Oxford University Press), Straight Baselines in International Maritime Boundary Delimitation (with W.M. Reisman) (1992, St. Martin’s Press), and International Law In Contemporary Perspective (with Reisman, Arsanjani, and Wiessner) (2004, Foundation Press). Professor Westerman was a Lecturer-in-Law at Yale Law School in 1988, when she taught Maritime Boundary Delimitation, and in 1991, when she taught Commercial Law. In 1991 Professor Westerman served as a pro bono consultant on school desegregation to the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union. At that time, she began a major research study of successfully desegregated school districts in the South. In 1996 her lead article on school desegregation was published by the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. Professor Westerman retired from the full-time faculty in 2011.

"For me, law has been and continues to be a window on the world. My hope is that Pace students will leave the law school with a legal education enhanced by opportunities to gain a world-wide perspective from contact with other legal cultures, systems and scholars. The London Law Program and the international summer internships abroad provide ways for our students to leave Planet U.S. and learn about law from another perspective. Students are now coming to Pace with a deep interest in and concern for the protection of human rights around the world. The Pace HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION program provides broad academic expertise but additionally, many opportunities to act on their desire to make a difference, including Summer Internships Abroad at WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS, HUMANITARIAN AID AGENCIES, other specialized human rights venues around the world."

Publications

Books

International Law in Contemporary Perspective (with W. Michael Reisman, Mahnoush H. Arsanjani, and Siegfried Wiessner) (Foundation Press, 2004).

The Juridical Bay: Its Designation and Delimitation in International Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Straight Baselines in International Maritime Boundary Delimitations (with W. Michael Reisman). New York: St. Martin's Press/McMillan, 1992.

Articles

"The Promise of State Constitutionalism: Can It Be Fulfilled in Sheff v. O'Neill?" 23 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 351 (1996).

"Rejoinder to John Briscoe's Review of The Juridical Bay," 20 Ocean Development and International Law 429 (1989).

"Straight Baselines in International Law: A Call for Reconsideration," 82 American Society of International Law Proceedings 260 (1988).

"The Juridical Status of the Gulf of Taranto: A Brief Reply," (Conference on Historic Bays of the Mediterranean, Syracuse University Center, October 12-13, 1984, Transcript.) 11 Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 297 (1984).