Eugene Kontorovich


Eugene Kontorovich is a legal scholar specializing in maritime piracy and universal jurisdiction.

Career

Kontorovich studied law at the University of Chicago, and began teaching there at age of 26. He later clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2011, he received a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and was later awarded the Federalist Society’s Bator Award, given annually to a young scholar under 40.
From 2011 to 2018, Kontorovich worked as a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School. He was formerly a professor at Northwestern University.
Kontorovich coined the term "gaolbalization" : the practice of one country sending its excess prison population to another country with excess capacity. He has been active in opposing boycotts of Israel and its settlements, including standing before a special US congressional committee on the topic.
Kontorovich is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and heads the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum. He occasionally writes for the Washington Post and the Jerusalem Post.

Personal life

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Kontorovich moved to the US with his parents at the age of three. He immigrated to Israel in 2013 with his wife and four children, and lived in the Alon Shvut settlement.