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Jean-Marc Coicaud

Professor of Law and Global Affairs and Director of the Division of Global Affairs

Jean-Marc Coicaud is a Professor of Law and Global Affairs, and Director of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University. He also is a Global Ethics Fellow with the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs. 

He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science-Law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Doctorat d’État in Political Theory from the Institut d’Études Politiques of Paris. He also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in philosophy, literature and linguistics.

Jean-Marc Coicaud has published 14 books (single-authored, co-authored and co-edited) and more than 60 chapters and articles in the fields of comparative politics, political and legal theory, international relations, and international law. His books are available in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, and include the following: L’introuvable démocratie autoritaire (L’Harmattan, 1996), Légitimité et Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997), Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007), Kokuren no Genkai/Kokuren no Mirai (Future of the UN/Limits of the UN - Fujiwara Shoten, 2007), and Mai Xiang Guo Ji Fa Zhi (Towards the International Rule of Law - Sanlian Shudian, 2008).

Prior to joining Rutgers, from 2003 to 2011, he served as the Director of the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. From 1996 to 2003, he was Senior Academic Officer and Director of Studies at the UNU Headquarters in Tokyo. Prior to joining UNU, from 1992 to 1996, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. In the spring of 1996, he also served as an advisor at the Guatemalan Office of the UN Department of Political Affairs. A former fellow at Harvard University from 1986 to 1992 (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the École Normale Supérieure-Ulm (Paris), Chuo Law School (Tokyo), Inter American University of Puerto Rico School of Law (San Juan), and has taught at the New School for Social Research (New York City). In addition, he has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.), a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law, and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University (Beijing).

Jean-Marc Coicaud has lectured extensively throughout the world, including Chile (Naval War Academy), China (Beijing University, Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University), France (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, École Polytechnique, Institut d’Études Politiques), Hungary (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Italy (European University Institute), Japan (Chuo University, Keio University, Waseda University), Taiwan (National Taiwan Normal University), the United Kingdom (Cambridge University, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Oxford University), and the United States (Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, Rand Corporation, University of California at Berkeley, University of Southern California, Columbia University, U.S. War College).

Jean-Marc Coicaud serves on the advisory board of Global Policy Journal (London) and is a member of the Carnegie Council Advisory Board of Global Policy Innovations (New York City).

His latest book, co-edited with Hilary Charlesworth, is Fault Lines of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His most recent chapter is “Solidarity: Meaning and Challenges,” in Bertrand Badie, Dirk Berg-Schlosser and Leonardo Morlino (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science (Sage Publications, 2011). His most recent article is, “Chugoku, gurobaru taikoku e no jouken” (“Strengths and Weaknesses of China, and the Evolution of the International System”), written with Zhang Jin and published in Japanese in KAN: History, Environment, Civilization: A Quarterly Journal on Learning and the Arts for Global Readership (Tokyo, Fujiwara Shoten, Vol. 46/2011 Summer).

He is currently working on a book titled International Legitimacy and Global Justice, for which he is under contract with Cambridge University Press.