Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Omar Dajani is the Carol Olson Professor of International Law at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific and co-director of the law school’s Global Center for Business & Development. He is recognized as a leading expert on legal aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In 1999, Dajani was recruited to serve as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel, ultimately participating in the summits at Camp David and Taba. He then joined the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), where he worked on peacebuilding initiatives and played a lead role in marshaling and organizing international efforts to support Palestinian legal and political reforms. Dajani has continued since that time to work as a consultant on a variety of legal infrastructure development and conflict resolution projects in the Middle East and elsewhere – for institutions including the U.S. Department of State, the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center (NOREF), and the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Widely published in legal and policy journals, Dajani ’s scholarly work explores the links between international law, legal and political history, and contract and negotiation theory. His current research focuses on what’s next for the states of the Middle East. He is exploring the status and protection of ethnic and religious minorities and considering the extent to which federalism and other forms of decentralization offer solutions to ethno-national conflicts in the region.

Dajani holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Before he began his work as legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team and his academic career at McGeorge School of Law, he clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a litigation associate at the Washington D.C., office of Sidley & Austin. 

Professor Dajani's Athenaeum presentation is part of the “Middle East: What Now?” series, co-sponsored by the President’s Leadership Fund.