Beth Van Schaack

Beth Van Schaack is an American attorney and academic who served in the Biden administration as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice.

Beth Van Schaack
7th United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice
In office March 17, 2022 – January 20, 2025
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Morse Tan
Personal details
Education	Stanford University (BA) Yale University (JD) Leiden University (PhD)

Early life and education

Van Schaack obtained a bachelor of arts from Stanford University, a juris doctor from Yale Law School, and a PhD from Leiden Law School at the University of Leiden.

Career

Van Schaack was a visiting professor in human rights at Stanford Law School, teaching in areas relating to international law and human rights. She has been the acting director of the human rights and conflict resolution clinic. She is a fellow with Stanford's Center for Human Rights and International Justice. She was also a visiting professor at Santa Clara University School of Law focusing on laws of war.^[1] As an attorney, she was an associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP, as well as working with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

US State Department

She served as Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the State Department from 2012 to 2013, advising the present office holder Stephen Rapp. She helped advise the secretary of state and the under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy, and human rights on the formation of U.S. policy aimed at curbing mass atrocities and genocide.

Ambassador-at-Large

Ambassador Van Schaack at a State Department press briefing on March 23, 2022

On October 21, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Van Schaack to be the ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice.^[2] Hearings on her nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 12, 2022. The committee favorably reported her nomination to the Senate floor on March 8, 2022. Van Schaack was confirmed by the full Senate via voice vote on March 15, 2022,^[3] and she was sworn in on March 17.^[4]

Following the appointment of Marco Rubio as United States Secretary of State, the role of Ambassador for GCJ was left unfilled and Van Schaack is no longer listed as holding the office on the State Department website,^[5] though her name previously appeared there and remains in the official Biden administration website archive.^[6]

Publications

• Imagining Justice for Syria^[7]