Lesley Wexler
Lesley Wexler

Lesley Wexler is a Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Immediately prior to taking the position at Illinois, Wexler was a Professor of Law at Florida State University, whose faculty she joined in 2006 after serving as a Harry A. Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. 

She received a bachelor's degree in English Literature with honors from the University of Michigan and her J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago, where she served as an associate editor for the Chicago Journal of International Law and article editor for the Chicago Legal Forum. Upon graduating from law school in 2002, Professor Wexler clerked for Judge William Wayne Justice of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and then for Judge Thomas Reavley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 

Professor Wexler writes, teaches and consults in the public international law fields, especially international humanitarian law, international disaster law, and human rights as well as in the anti-discrimination field more generally. She has published in a variety of journals, including the University of Chicago Law Review, the Yale Journal of International Law, the Chicago Journal of International Law, the Michigan Journal of International Law, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Georgia Law Review, and the Cardozo Law Review. 

Columns by Lesley Wexler
Reason in the Time of Trump’s Transgender Tweet: The Military Benefits of Fortifying Pro-Dignity and Anti-Discrimination Norms

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains why the U.S. military would benefit from strengthening its pro-dignity and anti-discrimination norms, rather than implementing divisive discriminatory policies such as President Trump’s recent tweet regarding transgender service members. Wexler points to concrete ways inclusivity fortifies the military and calls upon leadership to embrace inclusive policies.

The High Long-Term Costs of Engaging in Torture

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains the significance of the Canadian government’s recent settlement with and apology to Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian member of al-Qaeda who fought against the United States in Afghanistan. Wexler explains that while a majority of Canadians oppose the settlement, Prime Minister Trudeau has chosen to pay the political and economic price for his predecessor’s decision to allow Canadian interrogators to participate in the Guantanamo regime and for his refusal to seek Khadr’s return to Canada.