Eric N. Richardson

Eric N Richardson – Negotiator, international lawyer and human rights advocate

In over 30 years as a diplomat, attorney, writer and educator, I have negotiated results and pursued justice in China, North Korea, Libya, the United Nations, Israel, Tunisia, Sudan, Myanmar and Washington, DC.   After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School in 1991, I clerked for a federal district judge, was a field organizer for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign and then sued the government over telecommunications and antitrust regulatory activities as an attorney with Morrison & Foerster.  In 1996, I joined the State Department as a foreign service officer.  After supervising dozens of diplomats and working on human rights issues in Geneva, China, the Arab Spring, the State Department Legal Adviser’s Office and on Capitol Hill, I retired in 2018 to establish an NGO focused on health, human rights and new technologies (INHR.org/UNHRGeneva.org). I am also a professional mediator handling Asian issues for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

For Berkeley, I teach and write about human rights law and UN law in a program that brings students to Geneva, Switzerland – where I live and work – to serve as student legal advisors for UN delegations.  I especially enjoy teaching law students to negotiate in the United Nations, and wrote a book about negotiation theory.  In my free time, I enjoy snow skiing and boating around Lake Geneva, water-skiing and watching sports at my summer home in Holland, Michigan and travelling. 

To understand more about the issues I work on and how I approach them, please check out the following:

The Art of Getting More Back in Diplomacy Negotiation lessons from North Korea, China, Libya and the United Nations. U. Michigan Press, 2021,  https://www.press.umich.edu/11978420/the_art_of_getting_more_back_in_diplomacy

Emergencies End Eventually How to Better Analyze Human Rights Restrictions Sparked by COVID under the ICCPR, Michigan Journal of International Law (2020) https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol42/iss1/4/

Peering Into North Korea, Nikkei Asian Review (2018), https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Tea-Leaves/Peering-into-North-Korea2

And for details about my work outside of teaching law, please visit:

INHR.org: Leveling the UN Playing Field for You:  https://inhr.org/who-we-are

Education

Juris Doctorate, U Michigan Law School (1991)
MA (Law & World Politics), U Michigan (1991)
BA (Int'l Relations), Stanford University (1988)

Eric N Richardson is teaching the following course in Fall 2024:

• 295F sec. 001 - INHR: Geneva Field Placement Seminar

Courses During Other Semesters