Anna Spain Bradley, the MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, has been elected to the membership of the American Law Institute, among the most prestigious positions for law professors, judges, and lawyers.

The ALI is the “leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law.” Its wide array of projects and publications include restatements of the law and other heavily researched compendia “that are enormously influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.”

Spain Bradley looks forward to using her expertise to help advance ALI’s mission supporting the rule of law and contributing to the public good.

Spain Bradley, who joined UCLA Law as a professor of law in 2020, is an authority in international law, international dispute resolution, and human rights. She has served as the faculty director of The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA (with locations in Los Angeles and in Europe) and as UCLA’s Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Her distinguished record in the field of international law includes an appointment by President Biden in 2024 to the World Bank ICSID Panel of Conciliators and service as legal expert to the United Nations.

She is an in-demand speaker and widely published author whose next book, Global Racism: A Challenge for the World (Oxford University Press, 2026), will be published later this year.

She is the 19th ALI member currently serving on the UCLA Law faculty.

ALI members include “eminent judges, lawyers, and law professors from all areas of the United States and from many foreign countries, selected on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in improving the law.” They are elected after being nominated by existing organization members, who “are encouraged to propose individuals who have demonstrated excellence in the law, are of high character, will contribute to the work of the Institute, and are committed to its mission.”

Spain Bradley earned a B.A. from Denison University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as an executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. She clerked for Judge Raymond Finch in the U.S. District Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands.