Clebrating our Faculty: Christopher Kelley

 Celebrating our Faculty: Christopher Kelley

Christopher Kelley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, teaching in both the LL.M. Program and the J.D. Program. His agricultural law expertise is well grounded in his representation of farmers through firms in Georgia, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. Prior to his position at the University of Arkansas, Professor Kelley taught agricultural law courses at William Mitchell College of Law, North Dakota University School of Law School, South Dakota University Law School, and Drake University Law School. He has published numerous articles on agricultural law subjects and two comprehensive lawyer's guides on payment limitations and administrative appeals.

Professor Kelley regularly teaches Agriculture & the Environment and will supervise the development of our expanded environmental law curriculum. He also regularly teaches Regulated Markets in Agriculture and Specialized Legal Research and Writing. This Spring he taught our new course, Selected Issues in International Agricultural and Food Law. And, he is developing another new course for Fall 2014, Administrative Process and Practice in Agricultural & Food Law.

As additional evidence of the breadth of his agricultural law expertise, over the years, he has also taught Cooperative Law, Regulation of Agriculture, Agricultural Perspectives and specialized courses on the farm programs and the Packers & Stockyards Act. He is a former recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the American Agricultural Law Association.

In the law school's J.D. program, Professor Kelley's teaches Administrative Law, Transnational Negotiation, International Commercial Arbitration, Law and Development (with Professor Uche Ewleuka), and a Rule of Law Colloquium. These courses are also available to interested LL.M. candidates.

In recent years, Professor Kelley has developed extensive international law expertise and experience. He serves as a board member for the Fulbright Alumni Association and his international law work was recently featured in the association's magazine, The Fulbright Edge. An excerpt is as follows:

Professor Kelley was a Fulbright Scholar in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2005 and in Chisinau, Moldova, in 2011. He continues to teach at universities in Ukraine and Moldova through interactive digital video conferencing and in person. He also has taught and continues to teach in Belarus and Lithuania and has taught in Kazakhstan and Russia. He is a part-time Professor at Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv and a consultant to the Inyurpolis Law Firm in Kharkiv.

Professor Kelley has taken University of Arkansas law students to Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus. He was the first American law professor to teach at the Belarusian State University Law Faculty and his Transnational Negotiation students were the first American law students to participate in a course at the BSU Law Faculty.
Currently the Chair of the Public International Law I Division of the American Bar Association Section of International Law, Professor Kelley previously served three terms as the Co- Chair of the Section’s Russia/ Eurasia Committee. He is now a Senior Adviser to the Russia/Eurasia Committee. He also has served as Vice-Chair of the Section’s Committee on International Legal Education and Specialist Certification. He was a delegate on the Section’s International Legal Exchange (ILEX) briefing trips to Poland, Jordan, Lebanon, Australia, and New Zealand. He participated in the World Justice Project’s World Justice Forums I and II in Vienna and the World justice Forum IV in The Hague. Recently, he was appointed to an ad hoc Section Committee to advise the American Bar Association’s President on ongoing developments in Ukraine.

Professor Kelley is a member of the editorial boards of the Baltic Journal of Law and Politics published by Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, and Law and Civil Society published by Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine. He was on the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Academy. He also is a member of the International Bar Association.

As we post this, Professor Kelley just arrived for a week of teaching in Moldova. He returns on Friday so that he can participate in our graduation ceremonies for this year's LL.M. class.