Morse Tan
Associate Professor of Law

B.A., Wheaton College
M.A., Wheaton Graduate School
J.D., Northwestern University

Email:  mtan1@niu.edu
Phone:  (815) 753-1095
Room:  198B

Biography

A Supreme Court Fellowship Finalist, Professor Tan previously served as a Visiting Scholar and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law. He has published in leading law journals in his fields, including as one of the leading legal scholars on North Korea in the Western Hemisphere. Prof. Tan has served as a peer reviewer for the Human Rights Journal and the International Negotiation Journal.

Experientially, he has worked in major law firms, the American Medical Association’s Institute of Ethics, as a certified mediator, and for organizations such as the UN Development Programme as well as the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Prof. Tan has enjoyed speaking at various universities and conferences, both in North America as well as abroad. He has contributed to a number of media outlets, including UPI (United Press International), and has consulted on legal as well as ethical matters. Prof. Tan is a member of the American Society of International Law and has served on a number of boards.  

With a National Merit Scholarship, the Harvard Book Award, and credits transferred from Stanford University, Prof. Tan graduated with honors from Wheaton College, attained an accelerated Master's (with nearly all A's) from its graduate school, and earned his JD from Northwestern University School of Law, where he completed an international law concentration.

In October of 2012, Professor Tan signed a book contract with Routledge Press, a well-respected academic press in Great Britain, on the national security and human rights crises relating to North Korea.

Law Review Articles and Academic Book Chapters

• "Finding a Forum for North Korea," SMU Law Review, forthcoming 2012.
• “Upholding Human Rights in the Hemisphere: Casting Down Impunity Through the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,” 43 Texas International Law Journal 2.
• “Compliance Theory and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,” 33 International Journal of Legal Information 3 (lead article). This journal is housed and peer-edited at Yale Law School.
• “A State of Rightlessness:  the Egregious Case of North Korea” 80 Mississippi Law Journal 20.
• “The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Past Failures and Present Solutions,” 50 St. Louis University Law Journal 2. 
• “A State of Rightlessness: The Egregious Case of North Korea” chapter in the book International Law, Conventions and Justice, edited by Prof. David Frenkel, LLD.
• “The Jurisprudential Underpinnings of Law, Especially International
  Law: the Basis for True Progress & Reform” 2 Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy 1 (lead article).
• “Advancing Civil Rights, the Next Generation: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 and Beyond”,  19 Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 1.

Selected Presentations

• Presenter on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Valparaiso University Law School faculty workshop, October 2012.
• Panelist at Society of American Law Teachers, The John Marshall Law School and Northern Illinois University College of Law's “Breaking In: How to Become a Law Professor or Law School Administrator” Program, September 16, 2011.
• "Redress for a Reprehensible Regime: Finding a Forum for North Korea," presented at the Central States Law Schools' Association annual conference, 2011.
• “A State of Rightlessness: the Egregious Case of North Korea,” presented in Athens, Greece at the Athens Institute for Education and Research Law Conference, 2010.
• “Compliance Theory and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,” presented at Queens University Law School (Canada), 2007.
• “Issues Concerning North Korea,” presented at the University of Texas, 2007.
• “Lawyering in the Face of Poverty, Persecution, Suffering and Marginalization,” The University of Oklahoma School of Law, 2005.

Areas of Expertise:  International Law, Human Rights, Bioethics, Constitutional Law, North Korea, Legal Philosophy

Current Courses Taught: Public International Law, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law, Bioethics

Other Courses Taught: International Organizations, Constitutional Law I & II, Jurisprudence, Contracts, Law and Contemporary Issues

Foreign Languages & Travel: Spanish, Portuguese (can comprehend), French (basic), Korean and Latin; has travelled to around 30 countries

Other Interests: With victories over NCAA Division I Top 5 and ATP World Tour Top 250 players, Prof. Tan is a Certified Pro with TennisCare (www.tenniscare.com) and has taught tennis on the side. As a cellist, he has performed at the Sydney Opera House, the Glinka Cappella, KDFC radio and in recordings with commendation by Itzhak Perlman.