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Isaak Dore

Isaak Dore is a legal philosopher, writer, and Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy Emeritus at St. Louis University School of Law. He has published articles and books over various legal topics, such as jurisprudence/legal philosophy, international law, anthropology of law and US constitutional law. For his contributions to French legal education, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from France.

Education

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Early life

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Dore was born in Lusaka, Zambia in 1950.[1] He graduated from the University of Zambia with an LL.B in 1972 and an LL.M in 1975. After completion of his LL.B in 1972, he served as Public Prosecutor and Legal Aid Counsel in the Zambian Ministry of Legal Affairs for two years. He was also the Assistant Editor of the Zambia Law Reports from 1970-1975.[2][3]

As Sterling Fellow at Yale Law School, Dore obtained an LL.M in 1975 and a J.S.D. in 1978. Shortly thereafter, he served as a Human Rights Officer and then as a Special Consultant in the United Nations Division of Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, before returning to the United States to pursue a full-time career in higher education.[2][4]

Teaching experience and principal academic interests

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Dore was appointed as Lecturer at the University of Zambia in 1976, but turned to full-time teaching in the United States at the Southern Illinois University School of Law in 1979, following his work at the United Nations. He then went on to teach at the St. Louis University School of Law where he established the Center for International and Comparative Law, serving as co-director of for 10 years.[5][6][7] During his 35 year teaching career in St. Louis he primarily taught courses in jurisprudence/legal philosophy, international law, anthropology of law and US constitutional law.[2]

In addition to teaching in the United States, Dore lectured in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. He was an annual visiting professor for fifteen years in France, teaching courses in international law, US constitutional law and in legal philosophy at the University of Paris-Dauphine (Paris Dauphine University), Toulouse-Capitole University (Toulouse Capitole University), University of Orléans, and the Marie and Louis Pasteur University (formerly known as the University of Franche-Comté).[2][3][8] This has led to several publications in French academic journals and books.[9] Dore was awarded an honorary doctorate from France for these contributions to French legal education.[10]

Research and scholarship

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While at St. Louis University School of Law, Dore established a partnership between St. Louis University and the University of Warsaw, Poland, culminating in the inauguration of the St. Louis-Warsaw Transatlantic Law Journal. He served as the journal's Editor-in-Chief for 5 years.[2][3][11]

Dore's research interests cover a variety of fields, including international law, international arbitration, legal philosophy, political theory, law and ethics, and western philosophy, among others.[12][13] During his time in academia, he has researched, written, and published articles and books in these fields.[14]

Dore's most recent scholarship has been focused on legal philosophy, legal anthropology, political theory, and law and epistemology. For example, he has published articles showing the influence of politics in US Supreme Court decisions as well as philosophical critiques of the thought of Hobbes, Foucault and Rawls.[15] His 2007 book The Epistemological Foundations of Law discusses topics of legal philosophy, law and the epistemology of law.[16] His 2016 book Homo Juridicus: Culture as a Normative Order discusses legal philosophy and anthropology.[17] His most recent book was published in 2025 and is titled A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification.[18] This book integrates all four fields, presenting a theory of justice based on an anthropologically grounded methodology, synthesizing the political and philosophical thought of Aristotle, Michel Foucault, Michael Sandel, Martha Nussbaum, John Maynard Keynes, Paul Samuelson, Amartya Sen, Karl Marx, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and many other philosophers.[19]

Dore’s works have generated discussion in academic journals. For example, in the review of his book on The UNCITRAL Framework for Arbitration in Contemporary Perspective[20], Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern suggested that the book - comparing the UNCITRAL Rules of Arbitration and the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as well as those of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) - should have taken into account other institutional arbitration rules, such as those of the American Arbitration Association (AAA).[21] However, Dore's analysis of UNCITRAL's 1985 Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration was recognized for "bridging the gap between the practical and the theoretical" aspects of arbitration by Alyssa Grikscheit at the Michigan Law Review.[22] His book on multiparty arbitration[23] was reviewed by J. Gillis Wetter who also would have preferred a broader focus beyond the UNCITRAL rules.[24]

Dore's book The International Mandate System and Namibia[25] was reviewed by J. P. Rozier and Elizabeth S. Landis, who acknowledged the book for its focus on South Africa's violation of its obligations as Mandatory, as well as its critique of the inadequacies of enforcement mechanisms against South Africa, given the then government's extension of its policy of apartheid to Namibia. The scholar John Dugard expressed reservations about Dore's claim that South Africa had "annexed" Walvis Bay, but concludes that, overall, his book contains some novel ideas for resolving an intractable problem.[26]

Dore's book International law and the Superpowers: Normative Order in a Divided World[27] was reviewed by the late political scientist Christopher Joyner, who took note of its anthropological conception of international law in the context of great power politics, and of its attempt to enumerate the then "emerging law of interbloc reciprocity."[28]

Dore's latest book A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification[29] is still under review in the scholarly community.

Honors and awards

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Select publications

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  • International Law and the Superpowers: Normative Order in a Divided World (1984 - Rutgers University Press)[30]
  • The International Mandate System and Namibia (1985 - Westview Press) (refereed) [31]
  • Arbitration and Conciliation under The UNCITRAL Rules: A Textual Analysis (1986 – Martinus Nijhoff) [32]
  • Theory and Practice of Multiparty Commercial Arbitration (1990 - Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff) [33]
  • The UNCITRAL Framework for Arbitration in Contemporary Perspective (1993 - Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff) [34]
  • The Epistemological Foundations of Law (2007 – Carolina Academic Press) and accompanying Teacher’s Manual [35]
  • Homo Juridicus: Culture as a Normative Order (2016 – Carolina Academic Press) and accompanying teachers manual [36]
  • A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification (2025 - Palgrave Macmillan)[37]
  • The United States, Self-defense and the U.N. Charter: A Comment on Principle and Expediency in Legal Reasoning, 24 Stanford Journal of International Law 1 (1988).
  • The Distribution of Governmental Power Under the Constitution of Russia, Vol. 2 no. 6 Columbia University, Parker School Journal of East European Law 673 (1995).

References

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  1. ^ Isaak Ismail Dore, LUX: Yale Collections Discovery, https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/person/e94ba3aa-11fc-4d41-8ab4-7d6be0953b54.
  2. ^ a b c d e Isaak I. Dore, J.S.D., Saint Louis University School of Law, https://www.slu.edu/law/faculty/emeritus/isaak-dore.php.
  3. ^ a b c d Isaak I. Dore, Curriculum Vitae, Saint Louis University School of Law, https://www.slu.edu/law/faculty/-pdf/isaak-dore-2025.pdf.
  4. ^ See brief discussion on his time as a consultant at the UN at Clayton teens get new insight into Syrian situation, Dale Singer (Sept. 13, 2013), https://www.stlpr.org/education/2013-09-13/clayton-teens-get-new-insight-into-syrian-situation.
  5. ^ Dore, Isaak I., Library of Congress, https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82219281.html
  6. ^ Dore, Isaak I., Deutsche National Bibliothek, https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=nid%3D170147258
  7. ^ Isaak Dore, The International Law Program at Saint Louis University, 46 J. of Legal Education, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42893455?searchText=au%3A%22Isaak%20Dore%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fsi%3D1%26Query%3Dau%253A%2522Isaak%2BDore%2522%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad402167bc38b99b6633b571f8e45baec.
  8. ^ Séminaire du professeur Isaak Dore (10 octobre 2014), Master 2 Droit des Affaires et Fiscalité, https://leblogdum2daforleans.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/seminaire-du-professeur-isaak-dore/.
  9. ^ Dore's French publications include Protection of Persons with Disabilities in the United States (with David Buishas) Le Droit à l’epreuve de la vulnérabilité, Études de droit français et de droit comparé, Sous la direction de Frédéric Rouvière, CRJFC, Université de Franche-Comté, Bruylant, Bruxelles 96 (2010); Existe-t-il une Politique d’enseignement supérieur aux Etats Unis ? in Thèmes & Commentaires, Université Universités, Sous la direction de Charles Fortier, CRJFC, Université de Franche-Comté, Dalloz 87 (2010); La Force Normative du Pouvoir Étatique dans La Philosophie de Michel Foucault, in La Force Normative : Naissance d’un Concept, Catherine Thibierge ed., 57 (2009); La Discrimination liée à l’âge dans le Travail aux États Unis, in Droit et Vieillissement de la Personne (LITEC) Paris 233 (2008); L’influence Française sur la Nouvelle Épistémologie Juridique Post-moderne aux États Unis, 49 Les Archives de Philosophie 365 (2006); La Constitution des États Unis et L’accusé, Revue Internationale de Droit Comparé, 959 (2005); Code-based Systems of Law: Heretical Reflections of a Common Law Agent Provocateur, in Liber Amicorum en l’honneur du Professeur Joël Monéger ; sous la direction de Abdoulaye Mbotaingar et Thibaut Massart (2017); A Transdisciplinary Approach to la force normative, in Études en l'honneur du professeur Catherine Thibierge, Mare & Martin (2023).
  10. ^ a b Arrêtés du 14 décembre 2001 conférant le titre de docteur honoris causa, Legifrance, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000768937.
  11. ^ Saint Louis-Warsaw Transatlantic Law Journal, UC Berkeley Law Library, https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/152749.
  12. ^ See interview with Isaak Dore regarding international law and the 9/11 attacks at SLU law professor speaks about terrorism, Jenine Shipman (Sept. 27, 2001), https://unewsonline.com/2001/09/slulawprofessorspeaksaboutterrorism/.
  13. ^ See also Isaak Dore speaking to students about international law and Syria at Clayton teens get new insight into Syrian situation, Dale Singer (Sept. 13, 2013), https://www.stlpr.org/education/2013-09-13/clayton-teens-get-new-insight-into-syrian-situation.
  14. ^ Isaak Dore, ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isaak-Dore.
  15. ^ See Pragmatic Existentialism in a Post-Newtonian World, 54 St. Louis U. L.J. 1277 (2010); see also Deconstructing and Reconstructing Hobbes, 72 Louisiana Law Review 815 (2012); see also Same Sex Marriage in the United States: Intersection of Law and Politics, in Genre, famille et vulnérabilité : Mélanges en l’honneur de Catherine Philippe ; sous la direction de Anne Brobbel Dorsman, Béatrice Lapérou-Scheneider, et Laurent Kondratuk (2017).
  16. ^ Dore, Isaak (2007). The Epistemological Foundations of Law. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-59460-387-7.
  17. ^ Dore, Isaak (2016). Homo Juridicus: Culture as a Normative Order. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-61163-697-0.
  18. ^ Dore, Isaak (2025). A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-74337-5.
  19. ^ Professor Isaak Dore Publishes Book on Materialist Philosophy, Saint Louis University School of Law, https://www.slu.edu/law/news/2025/dore-book.php.
  20. ^ Dore, Isaak (1993). The UNCITRAL Framework for Arbitration in Contemporary Perspective. Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 1853335738.
  21. ^ Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern, Reviewed Work: The Unicitral Framework for Arbitration in Contemporary Perspective Isaak Dore, Archiv des Völkerrechts 36. Bd., No. 1 (März 1998), pp. 91-92, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40799069?searchText=isaak%20dore&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Disaak%2Bdore%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A741da25e8616961f919760964d7e4663.
  22. ^ Alyssa A. Grikscheit, Book review, 92 Michigan Law Review no 6 (1995), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1289626?searchText=ti%3A%22The%20UNCITRAL%20Framework%20for%20Arbitration%20in%20Contemporary%20Perspective%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dti%253A%2522The%2BUNCITRAL%2BFramework%2Bfor%2BArbitration%2Bin%2BContemporary%2BPerspective%2522%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A7053776aa86a610785ff98506cc995e2.
  23. ^ Dore, Isaak (1990). Theory and Practice of Multiparty Commercial Arbitration. Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 1853333182.
  24. ^ Book review by J. Gillis Wetter, in Arbitration International, Vol. 7 no.3 (1991).
  25. ^ Dore, Isaak (1985). The International Mandate System and Namibia. Westview Press. ISBN 0-86531-879-4.
  26. ^ J. P. Rozier, Book Reviews: Isaak I. Dore, The International Mandate System and Namibia, Journal of Asian and African Studies (1988) 230pp, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Book-Reviews-%3A-Isaak-I.-Dore%2C-The-International-and-Rozier/88ccc2bc91b80afd3d1181f23c4d54c3923211b1. For further review, see also Elizabeth S. Landis, Reviewed Work: The International Mandate System and Namibia. Isaak I. Dore, The American Journal of International Law Vol. 80, No. 2 (Apr., 1986), pp. 425-426, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2201998?searchText=isaak%20dore&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Disaak%2Bdore%26so%3Drel%26pagemark%3DeyJwYWdlIjoyLCJzdGFydCI6MjUsInRvdGFsIjozNzZ9%26groupefq%3DWyJtcF9yZXNlYXJjaF9yZXBvcnRfcGFydCIsInJldmlldyIsInJlc2VhcmNoX3JlcG9ydCIsInNlYXJjaF9jaGFwdGVyIiwiY29udHJpYnV0ZWRfdGV4dCIsInNlYXJjaF9hcnRpY2xlIiwiY29udHJpYnV0ZWRfYXVkaW8iLCJjb250cmlidXRlZF92aWRlbyJd&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aca0afaf725aa14d8da81e41eaf66a237 and John Dugard, Reviewed Work: The International Mandate System and Namibia Isaak J. Dore, The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jul., 1986), pp. 326-328, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4506885?searchText=isaak%20dore&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Disaak%2Bdore%26so%3Drel%26pagemark%3DeyJwYWdlIjoyLCJzdGFydCI6MjUsInRvdGFsIjozNzZ9%26groupefq%3DWyJtcF9yZXNlYXJjaF9yZXBvcnRfcGFydCIsInJldmlldyIsInJlc2VhcmNoX3JlcG9ydCIsInNlYXJjaF9jaGFwdGVyIiwiY29udHJpYnV0ZWRfdGV4dCIsInNlYXJjaF9hcnRpY2xlIiwiY29udHJpYnV0ZWRfYXVkaW8iLCJjb250cmlidXRlZF92aWRlbyJd&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aca0afaf725aa14d8da81e41eaf66a237.
  27. ^ Dore, Isaak (1984). International Law and the Superpowers: Normative Order in a Divided World. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813510149.
  28. ^ Book review by Christopher Joyner, 79 no 2 American Political Science Review (1985), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1956918?searchText=isaak%20dore&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Disaak%2Bdore%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A437e1177e16eaee6f790dc3815b4f9e9.
  29. ^ Dore, Isaak (2025). A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-74337-5.
  30. ^ Dore, Isaak (1984). International Law and the Superpowers: Normative Order in a Divided World. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813510149.
  31. ^ Dore, Isaak (1985). The International Mandate System and Namibia. Westview Press. ISBN 0-86531-879-4.
  32. ^ Dore, Isaak (1986). Arbitration and Conciliation under The UNCITRAL Rules: A Textual Analysis. Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 978-08-98-38913-5.
  33. ^ Dore, Isaak (1990). Theory and Practice of Multiparty Commercial Arbitration. Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 1853333182.
  34. ^ Dore, Isaak (1993). The UNCITRAL Framework for Arbitration in Contemporary Perspective. Graham and Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 1853335738.
  35. ^ Dore, Isaak (2007). The Epistemological Foundations of Law. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-59460-387-7.
  36. ^ Dore, Isaak (2016). Homo Juridicus: Culture as a Normative Order. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-61163-697-0.
  37. ^ Dore, Isaak (2025). A Materialist Theory of Justice: A Methodological, Philosophical and Moral Justification. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-74337-5.