Professor Avidan Y. Cover holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and a juris doctor degree cum laude from Cornell University School of Law. As part of a 2018-2019 J. William Fulbright Grant, Professor Cover teaches courses in International Criminal Law and Legal Theory at Strathmore and serves as the acting director of the Strathmore Institute for Advanced Studies in International Criminal Justice (SIASIC).
In the United States, Professor Cover teaches at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and directs the Institute for Global Security Law & Policy. Professor Cover has taught the Civil Rights and Human Rights Clinic at the law school, where he supervises students representing clients in civil lawsuits primarily in the areas of civil rights, including freedom of speech, unlawful force, and housing discrimination as well as documenting human rights abuses. He also teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Race and American law, and International Humanitarian Law.
Cover’s scholarship focuses on human rights, civil rights and national security law. He has appeared in numerous news media, including The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN, FOX News and Court TV.
Prior to his appointment at Case Western Reserve, Cover taught at the Seton Hall University School of Law, where he supervised the Urban Revitalization Project in Newark, New Jersey. In addition, he was a Gibbons Public Interest and Constitutional Law Fellow from 2007 to 2009 during which time he litigated prisoner’s rights, same-sex marriage, national security and education cases in federal and state court. Cover also served as Senior Counsel in Human Rights First’s Law and Security Program where he researched and analyzed U.S. military and intelligence agencies’ interrogation and detention policies and practices. He also worked in government focusing on emergency preparedness and response.
Journal Publications:
- Revisionist Municipal Liability, 52 GEORGIA LAW REVIEW 375 (2018)
- Reconstructing the Right Against Excessive Force, 68 FLORIDA LAW REVIEW 1773 (2016)
- Corporate Avatars and the Erosion of the Populist Fourth Amendment, 100 IOWA LAW REVIEW 1441 (2015)
- Presumed Imminence: Judicial Risk Assessment in the Post-9/11 World, 35 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW 101 (2014)
- Supervisory Responsibility for the Office of Legal Counsel 25 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS 269 (2012)
- A Rule Unfit for All Seasons: Monitoring of Attorney-Client Communication Violates the Attorney-Client Privilege and the Sixth Amendment, 87 CORNELL LAW REVIEW 1233 (2002)
- Is the ‘Adequacy’ Standard a More Political Question than the ‘Equality’ Standard?: The Effect of Standards-Based Education on Judicial Standards for Education Finance Litigation, 11 CORNELL JOURNAL OF LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY 403 (2002) [Student Note]
Other Publications:
- A Masterpiece of Shame: The Supreme Court's Muslim Ban, PATCH.COM, July 3, 2018 ‘Supreme Court Effect’ on police stops is more corrosive than the ‘Ferguson Effect’, THE PLAIN DEALER, August 26, 2016
- Why Google Can’t Be Your Avatar in Court, THE PLAIN DEALER, July 7, 2013
- Tortured Justice: Using Coerced Evidence to Prosecute Terrorist Suspects, Human Rights First (March 2008) (co-author with Deborah Colson)
- While Congress Slept, Human Rights Magazine, American Bar Association (Winter 2006) (co-author with Elisa Massimino)
- ‘There Are No Rules Here:’ A Visitor’s Guide to Guantanamo and the Military Commissions, SAMAR (online magazine) (Sept. 26, 2006) (co-author with Priti Patel) Attorney General Confirmation Hearings: Background Papers on Alberto Gonzales,
- Human Rights First (December 2004) (co-author and co-editor)
- Fulbright Fellow (2018-2019)