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Christopher A. Whytock

Vice Dean and Professor of Law

Joint appointment in Law and Political Science
Co-Director, Center in Law, Society and Culture

Christopher A. Whytock

Expertise:

Transnational litigation, international law, conflict of laws, empirical legal studies

Background:

Christopher Whytock is Vice Dean and Professor of Law  and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and Co-Director of the UCI Center in Law, Society and Culture.

In 2013, the American Law Institute appointed Professor Whytock to serve as an adviser on the new Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, and in 2014 the ALI appointed him to serve as an associate reporter for the new Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws.

Professor Whytock’s research focuses on transnational litigation, conflict of laws, international law, and the role of domestic law and domestic courts in global governance. His scholarship has appeared in law journals including Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, New York University Law Review and University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and peer-reviewed social science journals including International Security. His books include Research Handbook on the Politics of International Law (co-edited with Wayne Sandholtz), Transnational Law and Practice (with Donald E. Childress III and Michael D. Ramsey) and Understanding Conflict of Laws (Fourth Edition) (with William M. Richman & William L. Reynolds).

Professor Whytock has taught courses on international law, civil procedure, conflict of laws, foreign relations law, international relations theory, and business associations.

Professor Whytock previously taught at the University of Utah College of Law and practiced law as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University; his J.D. and M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law; and his B.A. in political science from UCLA.

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Prof. Whytock's Scholarly Papers on SSRN

  • June 2019: 
    Presenter, “Bias and Calibration in Foreign Judgment Recognition and Enforcement,” Private International Law Roundtable, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, NC
  • December 2018: 
    Invited Commentator, International Relations-International Law Graduate Workshop, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • November 2018: 
    Presenter, “No Longer the Light for the Moth? The Declining Role of U.S. Courts in Transnational Litigation,” Vanderbilt Law School International Legal Studies Roundtable
  • April 2018: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas, TX
  • May 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” Korea University Law School, Seoul, South Korea
  • April 2017: 
    Discussant, Practitioners and Scholars in Dialogue: What Do We Know About the Civil Justice System, Civil Justice Research Institute, UCI Law, Irvine, CA
  • April 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” International Law Colloquium, Center for Law and Global Affairs, Arizona State University College of Law, Phoenix, AZ
  • April 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts” (co-authored with Samuel Baumgartner), UC Irvine Socio-Legal Studies Workshop, Irvine, CA
  • February 2017: 
    Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • November 2016: 
    Introductory Remarks and Panel Chair, Conference on International Conflict of Laws and the Third Restatement, Duke Law School, Durham, NC
  • July 2016:
    Presenter, “Transnational Law and the Global Legal System,” Conference on Jessup’s Bold Proposal: Engagements with ‘Transnational Law’ after Sixty Years, King’s College London School of Law
  • April 2016:
    Presenter, “State Remedies for Human Rights,” Colloquium on International and Comparative Law and Politics, UC Berkeley School of Law
  • February 2016:
    Presenter, “Harmonization of EU Procedural Law: Is the US a Positive or Negative Model?” Conference on Common Rules and Best Practices in European Civil Procedure, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • February 2016:
    Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, UC Irvine School of Law