John Yoo

Professor John Yoo joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 1993. He serves as the co-director of the Korea Law Center and is the faculty director for the California Constitution Center and the Program in Public Law and Governance. He has authored several books, including "Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State."

Yoo received his B.A., summa cum laude, in American history from Harvard University. Before attending law school, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Washington, D.C. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Yale Law Journal.

Yoo has extensive legal experience, having clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1996. From 2001 to 2003, he was a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, focusing on foreign affairs, national security, and the separation of powers.

Currently, Yoo is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His international experience includes positions such as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Trento in Italy and visiting professor roles at Keio Law School in Japan, Seoul National University in Korea, Chapman Law School, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam. He has been honored with the Paul M. Bator Award for his contributions to legal scholarship and teaching by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy.

Yoo's bibliography includes titles such as "The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11" (University of Chicago Press, 2005); "War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror" (Grove/Atlantic, 2006); "Crisis and Command: The History of Executive Power From George Washington to George W. Bush" (Kaplan, 2010); and "Taming Globalization: International Law, the U.S. Constitution, and the New World Order" (Oxford, 2012). Additionally, he co-edited "Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security" (Encounter, 2011).

EDUCATION: A.B., Harvard University (1989) J.D., Yale University (1992)