Peter Danchin is the Jacob A. France Professor of Law, and co-director of the International and Comparative Law Program at the University of Maryland Carey Francis King Carey School of Law. He holds a BA and LLB with first class honors from the University of Melbourne, where he was editor-in-chief of the Melbourne University Law Review and president of the Law Students' Society, and a LLM and JSD from Columbia Law School where he was a Bretzfelder International Law Fellow. He was a foreign law clerk to Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, worked as a foreign associate at the New York law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, and was an associate at the Australian law firm of Allens Arthur Robinson. From 2000 to 2006, he was a lecturer and director of the human rights program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

His areas of interest include international law, human rights, comparative constitutional law, and legal theory. His scholarship focuses, in particular, on critical approaches to the right to religious freedom in international legal, political, moral, and theological thought. Recent publications include Politics of Religious Freedom (Chicago University Press: 2015) edited with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Saba Mahmood and Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Genealogies (113:1, Duke University Press: 2014), and a Special Issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, edited with Saba Mahmood. Earlier publications include United Nations Reform and the New Collective Security (Cambridge University Press: 2010), edited with Horst Fisher, and Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe  (Columbia University Press: 2002), edited with Elizabeth A. Cole.

In 2014-2015, he was a senior research fellow in law at the Center of Theological Inquiry  in Princeton, New Jersey, where he co-led the Inquiry on Law and Religious Freedom in cooperation with the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Previously, he was a visiting professor in law and Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Fellow in religious studies at the University of Cape Town. From 2011 to 2014, he was a member of the interdisciplinary research project Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practices.

At Maryland Carey Law, he teaches courses in public international and transnational law, international human rights in both theory and practice, and South African constitutional law. He is faculty adviser to the Maryland Journal of International Law and International Law Society.

Books

Editor, Politics of Religious Freedom (2015) (with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd & Saba Mahmood). Abstract

The Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Genealogies, Special Issue, 113:1 South Atlantic Quarterly (2014) (with Saba Mahmood). Abstract

Editor, United Nations Reform and the New Collective Security (2010) (with Horst Fisher). Abstract

Editor, Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe (2002) (with Elizabeth A. Cole).

Book Chapters

The Modern Architecture of Religious Freedom as a Fundamental Right, in Constitutions and Religion: Research Handbook in Comparative Constitutional Law 75 (Susana Mancini ed., 2020). Abstract

The Dialectics of the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief, in Routledge Handbook of Freedom of Religion or Belief (Silvio Ferrari et al. eds., 2020). Abstract

Religious Freedom as a Technology of Modern Secular Government, in Institutionalizing Rights and Religion: Competing Supremacies 184 (Leora Batnitzky & Hanoch Dagan eds., 2017). Abstract

Theology as Interdisciplinary Inquiry: The Virtues of Humility and Hope, in Theology as Interdisciplinary Inquiry: Learning with and from the Natural and Human Sciences (Robin W. Lovin & Joshua Mauldin eds., 2017) (with Robin Lovin, Agustín Fuentes, Friederike Nüssel & Stephen Pope).

Introduction and Preface: Law and Politics, in Politics of Religious Freedom (2015) (with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd & Saba Mahmood).

Religious Freedom in the Panopticon of Enlightenment Rationality, in Politics of Religious Freedom (2015) (with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd & Saba Mahmood).

The Politics of Religious Establishment: Recognition of Muslim Marriages in South Africa, in Varieties of Religious Establishment (Lori G. Beaman and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan eds., 2013). Abstract

Introduction: The New Collective Security, in United Nations Reform and the New Collective Security (Peter Danchin & Horst Fischer eds., 2010). Abstract

Things Fall Apart: The Concept of Collective Security in International Law, in United Nations Reform and the New Collective Security (Peter Danchin & Horst Fischer eds., 2010). Abstract

Whose Public? Which Law? Mapping the Internal/External Distinction in International Law, in Sanctions, Accountability and Governance in a Globalised World (Kim Rubenstein and Jeremy Farrall eds. 2009) Abstract

International Law, Human Rights and the Transformative Occupation of Iraq, in The Role of International Law in Rebuilding Societies after Conflict 64 (Brett Bowden et al. eds., 2009). Abstract

Human Rights, Humanitarian Law and the "War on Terrorism" in Afghanistan, in Between Force and Mercy: Military Action and Humanitarian Aid 111 (Dennis Dijkzeul, ed. 2004). Abstract

The Evolving Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Protection of Religious Minorities, in Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe 192 (Elizabeth A. Cole & Peter Danchin, eds. 2002). Abstract

External Monitoring and the International Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe 131 (Elizabeth A. Cole & Peter Danchin, eds. 2002). Abstract

Religion, Religious Minorities and Human Rights: An Introduction in Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe 1 (Elizabeth A. Cole & Peter Danchin, eds. 2002). Abstract

Articles

Situating Sovereignty: Judge Donoghue's Lone Dissent in the Chagos Advisory Opinion, 38 Temple International and Comparative Law Journal 79 (2024). Abstract

The Pandemic Paradox in International Law, 114 American Journal of International Law 598 (2020) (with Jeremy Farrall, Shruti Rana and Imogen Saunders). Abstract

Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions, 38 Australian Yearbook of International Law 1 (2020) (with Jeremy Farrall, Jolyon Ford, Shruti Rana and Imogen Saunders). Abstract

From Parliamentary to Judicial Supremacy: Reflections in Honour of the Constitutionalism of Justice Moseneke, Acta Juridica 29 (2017). Abstract

Access to Essential Medicines in African Countries: An Introduction, 31 Maryland Journal of International Law 1 (2016) (with Diane Hoffmann). Abstract

Exceptional and Universal? Religious Freedom in American International Law, 3 Critical Analysis of Law 175 (2016). Abstract

Unlawful Religion? Modern Secular Power and the Legal Reasoning in the JFS Case, 29 Maryland Journal of International Law 419 (2014) (with Louis Blond). Abstract

Politics of Religious Freedom: Case Studies, 29 Maryland Journal of International Law 293 (2014) (with others). Abstract

Immunity or Regulation?: Antinomies of Religious Freedom, 113 South Atlantic Quarterly 129 (2014) (with Saba Mahmood). Abstract

Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Genealogies, 113 South Atlantic Quarterly 1 (2014) (with Saba Mahmood). Abstract

The Tangled Law and Politics of Religious Freedom, 10 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 73 (2012). Abstract

Islam in the Secular Nomos of the European Court of Human Rights, 32 Michigan Journal of International Law 663 (2011). Abstract

Defaming Muhammad: Dignity, Harm and Incitement to Religious Hatred, 2 Duke Forum for Law and Social Change 5 (2010). Abstract

Who is the "Human" in Human Rights? The Claims of Culture and Religion, 24 Maryland Journal of International Law 94 (2009). Abstract

Beyond Rationalism and Instrumentalism: the Case for Rethinking U.S. Engagement with International Law and Organization, 28 SAIS Review 79 (2008). Abstract

Of Prophets and Proselytes: Freedom of Religion and the Conflict of Rights in International Law, 49 Harvard International Law Journal 249 (2008). Abstract

Suspect Symbols: Value Pluralism as a Theory of Religious Freedom in International Law, 33 Yale Journal of International Law 2 (2008) Abstract

The Emergence and Structure of Religious Freedom in International Law Reconsidered, 23 Journal of Law and Religion 455 (2008). Abstract

Between Rogues and Liberals: Toward Value Pluralism as a Theory of Freedom in Religion in International Law, 100 American Society of International Law Proceedings 114 (2006). Abstract

Transitional Justice in Afghanistan: Confronting Violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, 4 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 1 (2003). Abstract

U.S. Unilateralism and the International Protection of Religious Freedom: The Multilateral Alternative, 41 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 35 (2002). Abstract

• Comp Const'l Democracy Colloq
• Comparative Fundamental Rights Protection
• Comparative Law: Transnational Law and Lawyering
• Environmental Justice, Human Rights and Public Health
• International Human Rights Seminar/course
• International Law
• Maryland Journal of International Law
• South Africa Externship
• Special Topics in Comparative Constitutional Democracy