Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabadi

Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations (2004-07) and legal advisor to the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs during the negotiations for U.N. Security Council resolution 1546, which recognized the reassertion by Iraq of its sovereignty. Principal legal drafter of Iraq's interim constitution and principal author of its Bill of Fundamental Rights. Prior to the liberation of Iraq, worked for nearly a decade in opposition to the previous regime. Spent 33 years in exile, returning to Iraq in 2003 as senior advisor for constitutional reform and legal affairs to Dr. Adnan Pachachi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council Presidency. Founding Director, Center for the Study of the MIddle East; Professor of the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy at Indiana University since 2007. Research focuses on the processes of building legal and political institutions in countries in transition from dictatorship to democracy, especially the emergence of the rule of law in such societies, including questions of constitutionalism, legitimacy, transitional justice, and the historical, political and cultural factors which influence the process of democratization. Also writes on the politics of the Middle East.