Neil J. Kritz is the Institute's senior scholar in residence. He
focuses on analyzing and advising on efforts to strengthen the
Palestinian Justice system, having long led USIP's work on the
topic, and on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict more broadly. Kritz
also serves as rule of law/justice sector adviser in the Office of
the Quartet Representative, dividing his time between USIP in
Washington and the Quartet office in Jerusalem. He advises the
Quartet, Palestinian officials, and international donors on efforts
to strengthen the Palestinian justice system, and works closely
with Palestinian and Israeli officials to facilitate cooperation in
the justice sector.
Beginning in 1999, he guided a project on Palestinian-Israeli legal
dialogue and cooperation initiated at the request of the two
respective Ministers of Justice. He organized a series of joint
legal seminars, co-sponsored by the Government of Israel, the
Palestinian Authority, and USIP, that brought together some 150
members of the two legal communities to address practical issues
affecting day-to-day interaction between Palestinians and Israelis.
In 2008 and 2009, he served as an expert adviser on Palestinian
justice system issues to the U.S. special envoy for Middle East
regional security.
From 1991 to 2009, Kritz directed USIP’s Rule of Law Center of
Innovation, developing Institute projects and providing policy
guidance on such topics as war crimes and transitional justice,
constitution-making, model codes and law reform, customary systems
of justice, and the development of tools and strategies for rule of
law assistance to countries at risk or emerging from violent
conflict. Kritz conducts ongoing research, writing and consultation
on the question of how societies deal with a legacy of past abuses.
He has provided advice and organized conferences on questions of
war crimes and mass abuses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia,
Guatemala, Indonesia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and
Uganda. In 2001, he served on a U.N. Experts Committee on the
relationship between the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and
Special Court for Sierra Leone. At the request of the leadership of
the Bosnian parliament, he was the facilitator and expert resource
in 2005 and 2006 for an eight-party working group to draft
legislation establishing a truth commission. He organized early
consultations on the administration of justice in Afghanistan,
providing input that was adopted in the December 2001 Bonn
Agreement on governance of the country. He assisted in the
constitutional development process in Iraq from 2003 to 2008.
From 1990 to 1991, at the request of the Russian Constitutional
Commission, Kritz coordinated two expert reviews of the draft
Russian constitution. At the request of the U.S. Department of
Defense, Kritz prepared a curriculum on international law and the
promotion of democracy for use in training U.S. and foreign
military officials.
Before coming to the Institute, Kritz served as special assistant
to the chairman at the Administrative Conference of the United
States. He holds a juris doctor from American University’s
Washington College of Law.
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