Michael Scharf (USA) is Professor of Law and Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio, USA). From October 2004 to March 2005, he served as a member of the international team of experts which provided training to the judges and prosecutors of the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
Professor Scharf’s previous positions include working in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State as Counsel to the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, Attorney-Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, and Attorney-Adviser for United Nations Affairs. He was also a delegate to the UN General Assembly and to the UN Human Rights Commission.
In 2002, Professor Scharf established the War Crimes Research Office at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, which provides research assistance to the Prosecutors of several international criminal tribunals.
In February 2005, he and the Public International Law and Policy Group, a non-governmental organisation he co-founded, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their assistance in the prosecution of major war criminals, such as Slobodan Milošević, Charles Taylor, and Saddam Hussein.
Professor Scharf is the author of over fifty scholarly articles and eight books, including Balkan Justice, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998; The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was awarded the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit for the Outstanding book in International Law in 1999; Peace with Justice, which won the International Association of Penal Law's Book of the Year Award for 2003; and casebooks on the law of international organizations and international criminal law.
He teaches in the areas of public international law, international criminal law, the law of international organizations, and international humanitarian law.