Elaine M. Chiu

Elaine M. Chiu, Professor of Law

To publicize October as Domestic Violence Awareness month, Professor Chiu appeared as a guest on a legal education show, "Today's Verdict," hosted by St. John's alumni, David Lesch.  To see streaming video of this appearance,click:   http://www.bronxnet.org/tv/viewvideo/907/todays-verdict/todays-verdict--oct-5-2011

Professor Chiu's latest article entitled, That Guy's A Batterer: A Scarlet Letter Approach to Domestic Violence in the Information Age, has recently been published in the Family Law Quarterly.  It proposes a preemptive tool against domestic violence through the creation of publicly accessible domestic violence registries.  She is currently working on several new projects including child marriages in the United States and the movement against male circumcision. 

Professor Chiu's scholarship has focused on some of the most difficult issues in contemporary criminal justice.  Her past articles have discussed the schizophrenic nature of our domestic violence policies, the role of motive in prosecuting low level drug offenders, the need for honest consideration of culture and the dangers of criminalizing female genital cuttings. 

Professor Chiu is the chairperson of the Planning Committee of the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.  This is an annual event that gathers legal academics of color from across the country to discuss issues and topics of importance to communities of color.  This year NEPOC will be jointly held along with CAPALF (Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty) and will be at Hofstra University School of Law on November 4th and 5th, 2011.

Prior to coming to St. John's, Professor Chiu was a Research Fellow at Columbia University School of Law from 2000-2001 and a Climenko-Thayer Teaching Fellow at Harvard Law School from 1999-2000. From 1994 to 1998, she was an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan in the Trial Division where she specialized in both domestic violence and welfare fraud cases. Professor Chiu also taught as an Adjunct Professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School as part of their legal writing and research faculty from 1998-1999.

Professor Chiu is a cum laude graduate of Cornell University (A.B. 1991) and Columbia University School of Law (J.D. 1994) where she was a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Professor Chiu teaches Introduction to Law, Criminal Law, Family Law and the Contemporary Criminal Justice seminar.

Updated: Fall 2011 

Elaine M. Chiu