Sujit Choudhry

Sujit Choudhry was Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law from 2014 until March 2016.^[2] He was the first person of Indian origin to be named dean of a top US law school.^[3] He was previously the Cecelia Goetz Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.^[4] Choudhry is an expert in comparative constitutional law. He is a recipient of the Trudeau Fellowship, one of the four Canadians to receive the fellowship in 2010.^[4]

Following the disclosure of a university investigation finding that he sexually harassed executive assistant Tyann Sorrell, Choudhry was placed on an indefinite leave of absence on March 9, 2016.^[5] He resigned as dean the following morning, but he did not resign his position as tenured professor of law.^[6]

Professor Melissa Murray was named as interim dean, pending a search for a permanent successor.^[7]

Early life

Choudhry was born in New Delhi in 1970 as one of the two children of Nanda and Ushi, and moved to Canada when his parents migrated to that country. His father taught economics at the University of Toronto, and his mother, a nursing teacher and they set their children on academic paths (Sujit's brother, Niteesh, is a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School).^[8]

Education

Choudhry received his early education in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto Schools and McGill University.^[8] He then obtained a law degree from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and his LL.B. from the University of Toronto. He subsequently earned his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.^[9]

Personal life

He is married and has a son and a daughter.^[8]

Social involvement

University of California, Berkeley (1868)

Acting on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Transitions, Choudhry was involved in the Middle East affairs, first as an advisor to Libyan parliamentarians and later as an associate of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance on projects on Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) constitutions and post Arab Spring executive-legislative relations. He has participated in symposiums on Arab constitutionalism and constitutional reforms in Turkey. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has cited Choudhry's work in its reports.^[10]

While teaching Juris Doctor and LLM students at the Constitutional Transitions Clinic,^[11] he led a student contingent to Tunisia^[12] to present papers at the University of Tunisia. The group had meetings with high level politicians, including President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki.^[10]

Choudhry has held positions at many government and public agencies and has influenced public policies. In the medical field, he has acted as consultant to two public committees, the Romanow Commission and the Naylor Committee, the first assisting the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada and the latter advising the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health.^[9]

He was one of the World Bank delegates to Sri Lanka in support of the nation's peace process. He has chaired the Advisory Board of the>South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario and sat on the Governing Toronto Advisory Panel, which assisted the change in structure of municipal governance in Toronto.^[9]

He has also appeared as counsel in two noted cases: Charkaoui security certificate case and the Guantanamo detainee cases of Khadr 1 and 2.^[13]

Sexual harassment case

In 2016, Choudhry was served with a complaint by his former executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell, alleging sexual harassment between July 2014 and March 2015.^[14] The complaint followed a July 2015 report by the University of California's Central Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD).^[15]

The OPHD investigated Sorrell's complaints that Choudhry was "rude and demeaning" and demanded too much of her, including requests for tea and coffee and for assistance with personal business, and that their workplace interactions, including lingering hugs, kisses on the cheek and head, and squeezing of arms and shoulders, created a hostile work environment and was sexual harassment.^[15] Following an investigation, the Office reviewed Choudhry's conduct and determined that the use of rude language and requests that Sorrell bring him his tea or his lunch were not "gender discrimination" but that his physical interactions constituted sexual harassment.

During the investigation, Choudhry admitted that he had hugged, kissed, and squeezed Sorrell.but claimed that there was no sexual intent. He also admitted that on at least one occasion, he placed her hands on his hips, as he thought that that action might calm her down.^[15]

In August 2015, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele chose to discipline Choudhry by a 10% reduction in pay and by requiring him to write a letter of apology to Sorrell.^[14] The investigation and its results were kept confidential, and no members of the Berkeley Law faculty or staff were informed of the behavior.

On March 8, 2016, Sorrell filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California and named the Regents of the University of California as additional defendants.^[14] Choudhry has stated that he disagrees with Sorrell's claims and allegations and intends to defend himself.^[6] On March 10, Choudhry resigned as dean at Berkeley Law^[6] but remains on the faculty under the University's tenure policy.^[16] Students have published a letter demanding Choudhry's immediate resignation from both his administrative and faculty positions.^[17]

The controversy garnered national^[18] and international^[19] attention. The reporting quickly expanded, from covering Choudhry specifically to the history of tolerance of sexual harassment and violence by Berkeley's administration and faculty.^[20]

The added media attention triggered a series of high-profile responses from both the University of California Office of the President and the Berkeley administration.^[21]

On March 22, 2016, Professor Melissa Murray was appointed interim dean.^[22]

Positions held

Choudhry has served on many positions during his career.

Robarts Library, University of Toronto.

• Faculty Director of the Global Fellows Program, New York University^[10]
• Scholl Professor of Law, University of Toronto^[4]
• Associate Dean, University of Toronto^[4]
• Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto^[9]
• Senior Fellow of Massey College^[9]
• Law Clerk to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada - 1996 to 1997^[9]
• Graduate Fellow at the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions - 1998 to 1999^[9]
• Visiting Researcher at the Harvard Law School^[9]
• Member of the United Nations Mediation Roster^[4]
• Consultant to the World Bank Institute^[4]
• Consultant, constitutional transitions in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka^[4]
• Counsel of Record, the Supreme Court of Canada^[4]
• Member, Academic Advisory Committee to the Province of Ontario's Democratic Renewal Secretariat^[13]
• Consultant, Governing Toronto Advisory Panel, Municipal Government of Toronto^[13]
• Chairman, Advisory Board of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario^[13]
• Consultant, the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (the Romanow Commission)^[13]
• Consultant, the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health (the Naylor Committee)^[13]

Awards and recognitions

Sujit choudhry has received several recognitions such as:

• Rhodes Scholarship^[9]
• William E. Taylor Memorial Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC):^[9]
• Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship from Harvard University:^[9]
• Practitioner of the Year 2011, the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto^[4]
• Trudeau Fellowship^[4]

Books and publications

Sujit Choudhry has published books, over 70 articles, papers and reports on comparative constitutional law, detailing his studies on methods to convert civil war torn nations into peaceful democracies, with special emphasis on multi-racial, multi ethnic societies.^[4]

• Sujit Choudhry (2008). Constitutional Design for Divided Societies. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953541-5. 
• Sujit Choudhry (2008). Multinational Federations, Constitutional Amendment and Secession. 
• Sujit Choudhry (2006). The Migration of Constitutional Ideas. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521173476. 
• Sujit Choudhry (2006). Dilemmas of Solidarity: Redistribution in the Canadian Federation. Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0802094070. 
• Sujit Choudhry, Michael Pal (2007). Is every ballot equal? : visible-minority vote dilution in Canada. Institute for Research on Public Policy, Montreal. OCLC 246907471. 

He is presently working on a book for Oxford University Press, Oxford Handbook of Indian Constitutional Law in association with Pratap Bhanu Mehta.^[1]

References

External links

• on WorldCat
• Biography on JagranJosh
• Biography o Sify
• on GoodReads
• Reference on TVO.
• Reference on Mcleans
• News report
• on EDU Tech
• Sujit Choudhry talks about the newly formed Center for Constitutional Transitions at NYU Law