Professor Ursula Tracy Doyle focuses her research in the use of international law in United States domestic courts, business and human rights matters, institutional capacities of the United Nations, the human rights demands of restorative justice and the life of the diplomat-academic-and-politician Patricia Roberts Harris. She has presented her work domestically and internationally.
Before joining the Chase faculty in 2011, she taught legal research and writing at Howard University School of Law, in Washington, D.C., and practiced law in the areas of mass torts and complex litigation. She was a law clerk to Judge Theodore A. McKee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia. She has prior teaching experience in literature and composition at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.
Professor Doyle earned a Juris Doctor at Indiana University-Bloomington School of Law, where she was the student commencement speaker in May 1997, a Master of Arts in English at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in English at Cornell University. She has also studied in Colombia, France and Italy.
Razing the Dead: International Human Rights Law and the Treatment of “Slave” Burial Grounds (work in progress)
Patricia Roberts Harris: An American Icon (biography) (work in progres)
The Whole Wide World: Recognizing Jus Cogens Violations Under the Alien Tort Statute, 24 Buff. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 45 (2018)
Strange Fruit at the United Nations, 61 How. L.J. 187 (2018) (lead article) SSRN HeinOnline
The Cost Of Territoriality: Jus Cogens Claims Against Corporations, 50 Case W. Res. J. Int’l L. 225 (2018) (invited symposium submission)
The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Divining Balancing Factors from Kiobel’s “Touch and Concern” Test, 66 Hastings L. J. 443 (2015) PDF
Reflection on the United Nations as a Vehicle to Redress African American Oppression During the Jim Crow Era, United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, 27th Session, The Urgency of Now: Systemic Racism and the Lessons of 2020 (virtual) (December 2020)
Strange Fruit at the United Nations, Common Cause: Synthesizing the Work of Human Rights and Civil Rights Scholars and Practitioners Symposium, Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY (April 2019)
Razing the Dead: International Human Rights Law and the Treatment of “Slave” Burial Grounds, Transitional Justice Conference, Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Drexel University (October 2018)
Razing the Dead: International Human Rights Law and the Treatment of “Slave” Burial Grounds, SEALS Annual Conference Works-in-Progress Panel, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (August 2018)
Razing the Dead: International Human Rights Law and the Treatment of “Slave” Burial Grounds, Indiana University Europe Gateway, 3rd Global Meeting: Slavery Past, Present and Future, Berlin, Germany (July 2018)
Razing the Dead: International Human Rights Law and the Treatment of “Slave” Burial Grounds, LatCrit, South-North Exchange Conference, Antigua, Guatemala (May 2018)
The Whole Wide World: Recognizing Jus Cogens Violations Under the Alien Tort Statute, Faculty Workshop, NKU Chase College of Law, Highland Heights, KY (April 2018)
The United Nations, the “Negro” and the Dream Deferred, Faculty Workshop, NKU Chase College of Law, Highland Heights, KY (November 2017)
The United Nations, the “Negro” and the Dream Deferred, Faculty Exchange Program, St. Louis University School of Law, St. Louis, MO (November 2017)
The United Nations, the “Negro” and the Dream Deferred, LatCrit XXI, Annual Conference, Orlando, FL (September 2017)
The Cost of Territoriality: Jus Cogens Claims Against Corporations, Corporations on Trial Conference, Case Western University School of Law, Cleveland, OH (September 2017)
The United Nations, the “Negro” and the Dream Deferred, Ohio Legal Scholarship Workshop, University of Toledo College of Law, Toledo, OH (June 2017)
The United Nations, the “Negro” and the Dream Deferred, Association for the Study of Law, Culture and Humanities, Annual Conference, Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, CA, (April 2017)
A Woman First: Examining the Legacy of the Diplomat, Lawyer and Academic Patricia Roberts Harris, Feminism and International Law Interest Group, European Society of International Law Annual Conference, University of Vienna School of Law, Vienna, Austria (September 2014)
Killing Them with Kindness: Why U.S. Courts Should Solicit Input from the Most Interested Country before Denying Jurisdiction over Corporate Human Rights Abuse Cases on the Basis of International Comity, Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Annual Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (July 2014)
Killing Them with Kindness: Why U.S. Courts Should Solicit Input from the Most Interested Country before Denying Jurisdiction over Corporate Human Rights Abuse Cases on the Basis of International Comity, International Law Association British Branch Spring Conference, King’s College, The Dickson Poon School of Law, London, England (May 2014)
The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Divining Balancing Factors from Kiobel's 'Touch and Concern' Test, Faculty Workshop, NKU Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY (April 2014)
“Material Support” Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991: Do Extortion Payments Qualify? Faculty Exchange Program, Capital University School of Law, Columbus, OH, (November 2011)
Phelps Stokes (in conjunction with Howard University School of Law and sponsored by USAID-Colombia), Seminar to Strengthen Legal Clinics that Serve the Afro Colombian Community, Presenter, African American History and the Development of Civil Rights Jurisprudence in the United States, Cali and Cartagena, Colombia (March 2011) and Bogota and Quibdo, Colombia (November 2010)
NKU Chase College of Law, Professor the Year, 2019
NKU Excellence in International Education Award, NKU Chase College of Law Nominee (Spring 2018)