Bernard H. Oxman

Before joining the Law School in 1977, Professor Oxman served on active duty in the International Law Division of the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, and thereafter as Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

At the University of Miami, he has regularly taught conflict of laws, international law, law of the sea, and torts. He served as associate dean of the Law School from 1987 to 1990, served on the University's Faculty Senate from 1996 to 2017, and currently is the Faculty Chair of the Law School's Master of Laws Program in Maritime Law. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the law schools of the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, and the faculty of law of the University of Paris.

Professor Oxman served as United States Representative to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea and chaired the English Language Group of the Conference Drafting Committee that prepared the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which there are now 168 states parties. He also served as co-editor in chief of the American Journal of International Law and vice-president of the American Society of International Law. He is a member of the Institut de Droit International, the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the only American ever appointed to serve as judge ad hoc of both the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to which he was recently appointed in that capacity for the third time. He has also served as a member of the tribunal as well as counsel in various international arbitrations and proceedings between states as well as private parties.

He has published numerous books and articles on the law of the sea and other international law subjects in English and French including the book chapter, "The Fortieth Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" coming out in 2022. His honors include the Navy Commendation Medal, the American Society of International Law’s Francis Deak Award for articles in the American Journal of International Law, and the Provost’s Award for Scholarly Activity and the Faculty Senate’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award at the University of Miami.