Stuart Ford
Professor of Law
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Chicago Bar Association, C-1054
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About
Stuart Ford's academic interests are in constitutional law and public international law. In constitutional law, his focus is on understanding the original meaning of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. He has published articles on the role of preambles in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America, public discussions of the Preamble during the ratification debates, and the meaning of particular phrases in the Preamble, including the general welfare, the common defence, and domestic tranquility. His goal is to both rehabilitate the Preamble as a tool for understanding and interpreting the Constitution and to identify the original public meaning of the six goals listed in the Preamble.
In the field of public international law, Professor Ford has written extensively about international criminal law and international criminal courts. His research explores the effectiveness of international criminal tribunals, with the goal of improving their success. He has published articles on the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the responsibility to protect doctrine, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Ultimately, his work demonstrates that international criminal justice can be effective at preventing violence during armed conflicts.
Professor Ford has been recognized for his contributions to both constitutional law and international law. He was awarded UIC Law’s Lee Chair in Constitutional Law in 2025-2026 and 2023-2024 and served as an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford in 2023-2024. In 2015, he received the law school’s Faculty Scholarly Achievement Award. His work has been published in, among other journals, the Texas A&M Law Review, the Brooklyn Law Review, the Willamette Law Review, the American University International Law Review, the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, the Minnesota Journal of International Law, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.
He is a past Chair of the American Society of International Law’s International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group and the American Association of Law Schools' Section on International Human Rights. He spent the Summer of 2015 as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court where he helped the Office of the Prosecutor develop performance metrics for its investigations and prosecutions. He teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence, Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, and International Organizations.
Prior to joining UIC Law, Professor Ford worked as an Assistant Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), an international criminal tribunal that was jointly established by the Royal Government of Cambodia and the United Nations to prosecute senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge for atrocities committed in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. He participated in the selection of crime sites and suspects for investigation, conducted preliminary investigations, and participated in the co-investigating judges' investigations. In addition, he represented the Co-Prosecutors during the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, alias "Duch," the first person to be tried by the ECCC.