Director of Transnational Programs
Director, Rome Summer Program
Adjunct Professor of Law
B.A. Duke University
J.D. Columbia University School of Law
Michael Granne joins St. John’s School of Law as the Director of
Transnational Programs and Adjunct Professor of Law. Prior to
coming to St. John’s, he was a member of the faculty at Duquesne
University School of Law in Pittsburgh. Professor Granne has also
taught at Seton Hall and Hofstra Law Schools. He has taught Civil
Procedure, International Litigation in U.S. Courts, International
Business Transactions, International Criminal Law, Transnational
Law and Administrative Law.
Professor Granne was a litigator at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and
Hamilton, Wilmer Hale, and Sullivan and Worcester, representing
international clients in U.S. courts. His practice included general
commercial litigation and white collar investigations, but his
focus was on specifically trans-border issues, such as the Foreign
Sovereign Immunities Act, extraterritoriality, foreign affairs
preemption and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A graduate of
Columbia University School of Law, where he served as an Articles
Editor on the Journal of Transnational Law and was a
Michael Sovern and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Professor Granne
graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and spent
time at Oxford University and l’Universitá degli Studi di Bologna.
After graduation, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the
Republic of Cape Verde on the island of Santo Antão. While in Cape
Verde, he coached the high school’s basketball team to its first
national championship.
Professor Granne was a nationally ranked chess player as a child
and now plays Scrabble avidly. He speaks Italian, Portuguese and
Cape Verdean Crioulo fluently, as well as proficient Spanish.
Professor Granne and his wife, Rebecca, have twin boys, Jacob and
Zachary, who rule their collective life.
Selected Publications:
Defining “Organ of a Foreign State” Under the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act of 1976, 42 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1 (2008)
Two-Dimensional Federalism and Foreign Affairs
Preemption, 44 Val. U. L. Rev. 863 (2010)
Does the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Allow Suits
Against Individual Government Officials?, 37 Preview U.S. Sup.
Ct. Cas. 243 (2010)
Does Sovereign Immunity Shield Iraq from Paying for Human
Rights and Other Abuses of the Hussein Regime?, 36 Preview
U.S. Sup. Ct. Cas. 400 (2009)