Understanding the Political World

James N. Danziger is a Research Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, where he also has served as Chair of the Department of Political Science, campus-wide Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Chair of the Academic Senate. He is recipient of many honors and awards, including a Marshall Scholarship (to Great Britain), a Foreign Area Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Phi Beta Kappa, and an IBM Faculty Award. He received the first UC Irvine Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Teaching in 1987, the UC Irvine Distinguished Service Award in 1997, and the campus' highest honor, the Extraordinarius Award in 2009. His Ph.D. is from Stanford University, and he has held visiting appointments at the universities of Aarhus (Denmark), Pittsburgh, and Virginia. His research has received awards from the American Political Science Association and the American Society for Public Administration. He has published extensively, particularly on information technology and politics, and been an active participant in local politics.



Charles Anthony Smith received his PhD in political science from the University of California-San Diego (2004) and his JD from the University of Florida (1987). He is an Associate Professor at the University of California-Irvine. His books include The Rise and Fall of War Crimes Trials: from Charles I to Bush II (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2012), and Globalizing Human Rights (NY: Routledge 2014). He has published articles in Law & Society Review, Political Research Quarterly, Justice System Journal, International Political Science Review, Judicature, Journal of Human Rights, Election Law Journal, Studies in Law, Politics & Society, Human Rights Review, Journal of International Relations & Development among other journals and published chapters in edited volumes with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and University of Pennsylvania Press, among others. He has served as guest editor for special issues of the Journal of Human Rights and Human Rights Review. His research considers the role of courts, law, and litigation in the contestation over a variety of types of rights. He considers this unifying research theme using a variety of methodologies in the context of the United States, in comparative contexts, and in the realm of international relations and globalization. He has won a variety of awards for both his teaching and research.