Prof Sean Watts
Prof Sean Watts
Sean Watts is a Professor in the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he co-directs the聽Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare. He serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of聽Articles of War. He is also Co-General Editor of the Oxford University Press聽Lieber Studies Series.
He is author of聽The West Point Companion to the ICRC Updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention (West Point Press 2023).
Sean is a member of the Reading Committee of the ICRC鈥檚 Geneva Conventions Commentaries Update Project. From 2010-2016 he participated in drafting both volumes of The Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. From 2009-2011 he served as a defense team member in Gotovina et al. at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. In December 2017, he testified as an expert in the law of war at the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the Khalid Sheik Mohammed et al,聽proceedings.
He was formerly the James L. Koley 鈥54 Professor of Constitutional Law at Creighton University Law School where he co-founded the annual Nuremberg to The Hague Summer Program in international criminal law. Prior to teaching, Professor Watts served as an active-duty U.S. Army officer for fifteen years in legal and operational assignments as a military lawyer and as an Armor officer in a tank battalion. He then served for ten years in Army Reserve billets at the Army JAG School, West Point, U.S. Strategic Command, and U.S. Cyber Command.
Sean holds an LL.M. from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General鈥檚 School, a J.D. from the College of William & Mary School of Law, and a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He earned his commission as an Army R.O.T.C. distinguished military graduate.
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