Camille A. Nelson

Dean Camille Nelson has long been an outstanding member of the legal community.  Prior to her appointment as Dean of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law in 2020, Dean Nelson served as Dean of American University Washington College of Law (“WCL”), and as Dean of Suffolk University Law School in Boston.  She was also a Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, a Dean’s Scholar in Residence and Visiting Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and a Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law, where she was recognized as both Professor of the Year and with a university Faculty Excellence Award.   She has taught Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Transnational Law, Critical Race Theory, Criminal Procedure, and Professional Responsibility at a number of law schools, including the University of Ottawa, Seattle University School of Law, Université Paris Dauphine, and the University of Puerto Rico. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Prior to entering academia, Dean Nelson was a litigator at McCarthy Tétrault (a large Canadian law firm), and clerked for Justice Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada, the nation’s highest court.

Dean Nelson’s scholarship focuses on health law, criminal law and procedure, comparative law, and leadership, through the lens of cultural studies and critical race theory. She recently served as a co-editor of the Journal of Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools. She has published many impactful articles, chapters, and essays that have appeared in publications such as the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, New York University Review of Law & Social Change, and the Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law.

Her scholarship and leadership in higher education have been recognized through a variety of awards and honors. She was named among the Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine and was listed as one of the “Most Influential People in Legal Education” by the National Jurist. Dean Nelson also received the Paul Robeson Distinguished Alumni Award from the Black Law Students Association of Columbia Law School.

Recently, her professional service engagements include serving on the Executive and Steering Committees of the Association of American Law Schools, the board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, the board of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE), Teach for America (Hawai`i), and the Overseers’ Committee to Visit Harvard Law School. She completed a three-year term on the American Bar Association Center for Innovation, where she chaired the Fellowship Committee. Dean Nelson was appointed to the Senator Warren and Senator Markey Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Judicial Nominations.

Dean Nelson holds a B.A. with high distinction from the University of Toronto in Administration, a magna cum laude law degree from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School.

Camille A. Nelson & Anthony E. Varona 68 From the Editors J. LEGAL EDUC. 191 (2019). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille Nelson, Over and under-Policing: Thoughts on Remedying Shooter Bias, 2017 JOTWELL: J. Things WE LIKE 1 (2017). HeinOnline

Camille A. Nelson, Frontlines: Policing at the Nexus of Race and Mental Health, 43 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 615 (2016). HeinOnline

Camille Nelson, Disability Advocacy: Strategizing a Comprehensive and Contextual Path Forward, 2015 JOTWELL: J. Things WE LIKE [187] (2015). HeinOnline

Tanya Henderson, Camille Nelson & Zeina Chemali, Increasing Women's Political Participation in Lebanon: Reflections on Hurdles, Opportunities and Hope, 8 J. POL. & L. 233 (2015). HeinOnline

Camille Nelson, Crime, Surveillance, and Communities, 2014 JOTWELL: J. Things WE LIKE [133] (2014). HeinOnline 

Camille Nelson, Help in Deconstructing the Zimmerman Acquittal: The Suspicion Heuristic, 2013 JOTWELL: J. Things WE LIKE [123] (2013). HeinOnline

Camille Nelson, Is Critical Citizenship Critical, 2012 JOTWELL: J. Things WE LIKE [34] (2012). HeinOnline

Camille A. Nelson, Racializing Disability, Disabling Race: Policing Race and Mental Status, 15 BERKELEY J. CRIM. L. 1 (2010). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Racial Paradox and Eclipse: Obama as a Balm for What Ails Us, 86 DENV. U. L. REV. 743 (2009). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Batson, O.J., and Snyder: Lessons from an Intersecting Trilogy, 93 IOWA L. REV. 1687 (2008). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, The Radical King: Perspectives of One Born in the Shadow of a King, 32 N.Y.U. REV. L. & Soc. CHANGE 485 (2008). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Lyrical Assault: Dancehall versus the Cultural Imperialism of the North-West, 17 S. CAL. Interdisc. L.J. 231 (2008). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, American Husbandry: Legal Norms Impacting the Production of (Re)Productivity, 19 YALE J.L. & Feminism 1 (2007). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Lovin' the Man: Examining the Legal Nexus of Irony, Hypocrisy, and Curiosity, 2007 Wis. L. REV. 543 (2007). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Starting Anew: The ADA's Disability with Respect to Episodic Mental Illness, 75 Miss. L.J. 1039 (2006). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Multicultural Feminism: Assessing Systemic Fault in a Provocative Context, 17 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL'y 263 (2006). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Considering Tortious Racism, 9 DEPAUL J. HEALTH CARE L. 905 (2005). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Consistently Revealing the Inconsistencies: The Construction of Fear in the Criminal Law, 48 St. Louis U. L.J. 1261 (2004). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Breaking the Camel's Back: A Consideration of Mitigatory Criminal Defenses and Racism-Related Mental Illness, 9 MICH. J. RACE & L. 77 (2003). HeinOnline

Camille A. Nelson, Carriers of Globalization: Loss of Home and Self within the African Diaspora, 55 FLA. L. REV. 539 (2003). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, (En)Raged or (En)gaged: The Implications of Racial Context to the Canadian Provocation Defence, 35 U. RICH. L. REV. 1007 (2002). HeinOnline | SSRN

Camille A. Nelson, Toward a Bridge: The Role of Legal Academics in the Culture of Private Practice, 10 J.L. & POL'y 97 (2001). HeinOnline