The death penalty, comparative constitutional law, common law in Africa, international criminal law
Andrew Novak teaches courses related to international criminal justice and human rights. He was previously an adjunct professor of law at American University Washington College of Law, where he taught African Law. A lawyer by training, most of his research has been on the death penalty and comparative constitutional law, especially in common law Africa. He is licensed to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia, and served as a law clerk to the Chief Administrative Law Judge in the United States Department of Labor.
The African Challenge to Global Death Penalty Abolition: International Human Rights Norms in Local Perspective (Intersentia: 2016).
Comparative Executive Clemency: The Constitutional Pardon Power and the Prerogative of Mercy in Global Perspective (Routledge: 2015).
The International Criminal Court: An Introduction (Springer: 2015).
The Global Decline of the Mandatory Death Penalty: Constitutional Jurisprudence and Legislative Reform in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean (Ashgate Law: 2014).
The Death Penalty in Africa: Foundations and Future Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan: 2014).
Law and Justice Around the World
Human Rights and Justice
Social Inequality, Crime, and Justice
Capital Punishment (Special Topics)
Ph.D. (Law), Middlesex University London
J.D., Boston University School of Law
M.S. (African Politics), London School of Oriental and African Studies
B.A., International Affairs, George Washington University
Presentation, “The Future of Death Penalty Jurisprudence,” Conference on Comparative Capital Punishment, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas (April 7, 2017).
Presentation, “Sentencing Consistency in Homicide Cases After Abolition of the Mandatory Death Penalty: Looking at Length of Imprisonment in Botswana, Uganda, and Swaziland,” American Society of Criminology, New Orleans, Louisiana (Nov. 16, 2016).
Presentation, “The Mandatory Death Penalty and the Evolution of International Human Rights Norms,” Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (Sept. 3, 2016).
Presentation, “Clemency Reform in Comparative Perspective,” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Symposium, “At a Crossroads: The Future of the Death Penalty” (February 6, 2016).
Presentations, “The Death Penalty in Africa” and “Abolition of the Mandatory Death Penalty,” Third Oslo International Symposium on Capital Punishment, University of Oslo, Norway (December 6-7, 2015).
Presentation, “The Abolition of the Mandatory Death Penalty in Bangladesh,” Middlesex University London Ph.D. seminar (November 29, 2015).
Author Critic, The Death Penalty in China: Policy, Practice, and Reform, Book Launch, American Society of Criminology (November 21, 2015).
Television, PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff, March 24, 2015 (discussion on death penalty in Utah)
Radio, Power Perspective with Lawrence Thlabane, POWER 98.7 (Johannesburg, South Africa), August 4, 2015 (discussion on the death penalty in Africa)
Online News Segment, “Is Electing Prosecutors Fair?,” Huffington Post Live with Alyona Minkovski, Sept. 1, 2015 (discussion on prosecutorial elections in the United States)
Quoted in, “The Final Firing Squad in Southeast Asia,” by Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, OXY Magazine, Oct. 2, 2015 (article on the decline of the death penalty in Southeast Asia)
Quoted in, “Africa’s Glimpse at a Global Transformation on the Death Penalty,” by Ryan Lenora Brown, Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 2016 (article on decline of death penalty in Sub-Saharan Africa)
Radio, WBAL News Now with Bryan Nehman, WBAL 1090 AM (Maryland), April 25, 2017 (discussion on decline of the death penalty)