Kristen Boon, now Associate Professor at Seton Hall Law School, arrived at Columbia in the fall of 2003 as a visiting scholar at the University's School for International and Public Affairs (SIPA). After winning a Public Policy Fellowship from the Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership in Canada, she made contact with international law Professor Michael Doyle to discuss a short residency at Columbia. She already held a J.D. degree (2000) from New York University, and her initial intent was not specifically to pursue advanced studies in law at Columbia. Rather, with degrees in History and Political Science from McGill University and a recent Supreme Court of Canada clerkship under her belt, Ms. Boon wished to briefly rejoin an academic center to write about issues of ethics and international law that had caught her attention while working with the United Nations in Kosovo after graduating from NYU.
Soon after arriving at Columbia, Ms. Boon recalls, "I realized that the return to a university setting was so stimulating and satisfying that advanced legal studies might be the best next step in my career," With that in mind, she accepted a temporary position with Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in 2004, and decided to apply to the J.S.D. program.
The law school admits only a handful of students each year to the J.S.D. program to pursue a highly specialized course of study in law. Upon admission to the program, Columbia awarded Ms. Boon a Bretzfelder Fellowship in International Law to study legal reform in post-conflict zones such as Kosovo, Iraq and East Timor, still under the tutelage of Professor Michael Doyle.
Ms. Boon's research concentrates on the legislative powers of international institutions and legal reforms related to the establishment of market economies, allowing her to intermingle her interests in international law, political science and economic reform. "At Columbia, I have been fortunate to find a number of faculty members with relevant expertise, including Lori Damrosch [who serves on her J.S.D. Committee], Katharina Pistor, Tamara Lothian and Robert Ferguson."
Ms. Boon received her Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Columbia en passant in October 2005, and plans to complete her J.S.D. studies in 2007. As part of her degree, she published an article for the McGill Law Journal in 2005 entitled "Legislative Reform in Post-Conflict Zones," and has a second article forthcoming in NYU's Journal of International Law and Politics entitled "Open for Business: International Financial Institutions, Post Conflict Economic Reform and the Rule of Law."
Originally from British Columbia, Canada, Ms. Boon's prior work experience includes a clerkship with the Supreme Court of Canada with Justice Ian Binnie; a position as a Litigation Associate in the International Practice Group of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York; and a position as a Legal Officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada in Ottawa. In the spring of 2006 she also worked as a legal officer for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, focusing on terrorism and international peace and security and taught an international law class for Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
On July 1, 2006, Ms. Boon was appointed Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, where she is teaching Contracts to first-year law students this fall and will teach a course in International Economic Law in the spring. She will be directly involved in Seton Hall's international law programs and in developing its international law curriculum. "I was thrilled to join Seton Hall's faculty this year. My experience at Columbia has had a profound influence on my current thinking and approach to international legal issues."
