Stockton Center for International Law

The Secretary of the Navy established the Charles H. Stockton Chair of International Law on October 6, 1967 in honor of Rear Admiral Charles H. Stockton, president of the Naval War College from 1898-1900, a recognized authority on international law. Stockton was also president of George Washington University and he wrote the first code of the Law of Naval Warfare. From its inception, the Chair has attracted an exceptional array of international law scholars to the College, including such giants in the field as Manley O. Hudson (1951-1953), Hans Kelsen (1953-54), Leo Gross (1954-55), Howard S. Levie (1971-72), Leslie C. Green (1996-1997), Hays Parks (1984-85), Ruth Wedgwood (1998-99), Yoram Dinstein (1999-00), Ivan Shearer (2000-01), Charles Garraway (2004-05), Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg (2003-04 and 2012-13), Michael N. Schmitt (2014-18).

Click here for more information on Stockton Chairs and their history.

Current Charles H. Stockton Professor

Professor James Kraska is the Chair of the Stockton Center for International Law and the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Maritime Law.

The Levie chair is named for retired Col. Howard S. Levie, who served as a U.S. Army judge advocate during World War II and the Korean War. He reviewed Japanese war crimes tribunals and was the principle draftsman for the Korean War Armistice. After military service, Colonel Levie joined the faculty at Saint Louis University School of Law where he went on to become one of the world's leading scholars on international law, publishing some twenty books on the law of armed conflict. Levie’s long association with the Center was acknowledged by the President of the Naval War College in 1994 with the creation of the Levie Chair.

Current Howard S. Levie Professor

Professor Raul “Pete” Pedrozo is the Howard S. Levie Professor of the Law of Armed Conflict.

Professor Michael N. Schmitt, D.Litt., J.D.

Michael Schmitt is professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College. He is presently Professor of International Law at the University of Reading and the G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Professor Richard J. Grunawalt

Richard J. “Jack” Grunawalt is Professor Emeritus of International Law. Following a distinguished career as a Navy judge advocate, retired Capt. Grunawalt came to the Naval War College as the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Law and held that Chair until becoming the first Director of the Oceans Law and Policy Department, the predecessor of the Stockton Center for International Law. Under his leadership of its international law program, during his tenure the Naval War College regained its historic stature as the world’s preeminent military institution for the study and articulation of the rules of law governing the world’s oceans, both in time of peace and in time of war.

Visheh Bhatia, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University

Laurie Blank, Emory University School of Law

Peter Bowers, Royal Australian Navy Reserve

Douglas Burnett, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Camilla Cooper, Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College

John Dehn, Loyola University School of Law

Gloria Gaggioli, University of Geneva

Koichi Ishii, Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Academy

Suk Kyoon Kim, Korea Coast Guard

Keiko Kono, National Institute of Defense Studies (Japan)

Masahiro Kurosaki, National Defense Academy of Japan Ministry of Defence

Tim McCormack, University of Melbourne (Stockton Distinguished Visiting Scholar)

Young-Kil Park, Korea Maritime Institute

Sasha Radin, University of Melbourne

Vishaka Ramesh, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University

Yusuke Saito, Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Academy

Lena Trabucco, Carlsberg Fellow

Nicholas Tsagourias, University of Sheffield

Bart van den Bosch, Royal Netherlands Army

René Värk, University of Tartu (Estonia)

Mariia Vladymyrova, University of Copenhagen