Law Professor Celebrates 40 Years at Rutgers-Camden

Many of those former students, and others who shared in Clark’s journey, are helping the Rutgers School of Law–Camden celebrate Clark’s incomparable four decades of teaching excellence and achievement during an event Monday, April 2.

The event takes place beginning at 5 p.m. in Room 106 of the original law school building.

“Roger is a preeminent public international law and human rights scholar who has displayed exemplary commitment to teaching, international public service, and research during his 40 years at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden, where he has been an invaluable asset to our students and faculty,” says Rayman Solomon, dean of the Rutgers School of Law–Camden.

Clark, a Haddonfield resident, joined the law faculty at Rutgers–Camden in 1972.

“It has been an excellent place to work, very supportive of teaching, scholarship and public service,” says Clark, a Board of Governors professor of law. “I have had an amazing collection of very talented students who have gone on to remarkable careers.”

Clark says when he joined the Rutgers–Camden law faculty, he insisted on having a course on the international protection of human rights, an uncommon part of law school curriculum in the United States at that time.

By the mid-1980s, his focus shifted to teaching international criminal law, a topic also just beginning to be taught in law schools.

“I like to think that I helped shape the parameters of that discipline, now taught in various forms at a majority of U.S. law schools and the subject of a number of specialty programs worldwide,” he says.

In 1995, Clark became the first professor from Rutgers to present a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. During his appearance before the world’s highest court, Clark he argued on behalf of the Pacific nation of Samoa that nuclear weapons should be outlawed.

Clark was named a Rutgers Board of Governors Professor in 1998. The honorary professorship is awarded by Rutgers University’s governing board to faculty members for substantial contributions to teaching and research.

A former member of the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, Clark has served as vice president of the International League for Human Rights and is a board member of several other international non-governmental organizations, such as the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy in Vancouver.

He is the author of more than 10 books, including Understanding International Criminal Law (LexisNexis, Newark, 2nd ed., 2008) and serves on the editorial boards of various publications.

Prior to joining the Rutgers–Camden faculty, Clark worked for the New Zealand Justice Department and Ministry of Foreign Affairs; taught law in New Zealand; served as an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and Doctoral Fellow at the Columbia University School of Law; interned at the United Nations; and taught at the law school of the University of Iowa.

He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he received his LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees. He also attended Victoria University in New Zealand, where he earned his B.A., LL.B., LL.M. and LL.D. degrees.

Clark teaches courses in criminal law, international law, foreign relations and national security, and criminal justice policy.

He lives in Haddonfield with his wife, Amy Boss, a Drexel University law professor internationally known for her work on the law of electronic commerce.