Marc D. Falkoff

Professor of Law
Director, NIU Prisoners' Rights Project

Office: Swen Parson 196B

About

Marc Falkoff joined the NIU law faculty in 2006. He teaches courses primarily in civil rights, constitutional law and criminal law and procedure. He has also taught lawyering skills, federal courts and corporations. He helped found the law school's Prisoners' Rights Project in 2018 and became its director in 2022. His research interests are in legal education, the rule of law and the practice of public interest law.

Professor Falkoff served as associate dean for academic affairs from 2015 to 2020, and again during the 2021-2022 academic year.

From 2004 to 2024, he represented a number of prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantánamo Bay on suspicion of involvement with terrorism. For this work, he was named the "Charles F.C. Ruff Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year" in 2005 by Covington & Burling. He received the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award in 2007 from the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Bill of Rights in Action Award in 2008 from the Constitutional Rights Foundation in Chicago. The book of prisoner poetry he edited — Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak — was a bestselling anthology that has been translated into a dozen languages.

Following law school, he clerked for Judges Carlos F. Lucero of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and Jack B. Weinstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was appointed habeas corpus special master for the EDNY from 2003 to 2004.

Professor Falkoff has taught courses in post-conviction remedies and prisoners' rights at Brooklyn Law School, as well as classes in contemporary American fiction, memoir writing and realism and naturalism at Purchase College. In 2009, he received the Northern Illinois University Foundation Award for Faculty Excellence.

Education

B.A., University of Pennsylvania
M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Ph.D., Brandeis University
Ed.D., Northern Illinois University
J.D., Columbia Law School

Bar Admissions

Illinois, New York and District of Columbia

Areas of Expertise

Civil rights
Criminal law
Criminal procedure
Federal courts
Habeas corpus
Post-conviction remedies
Legal education

Publications

Books and Chapters

Reflections on Poems from Guantánamo, in Remaking the Exceptional: Tracing Torture, Justice and Reparations (DePaul Art Museum, 2022).
"Where is the World to Save Us from Torture?": The Poets of Guantánamo, in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights (Routledge, 2016).
Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak (University of Iowa Press, 2007) (editor).
Habeas Corpus Training Materials (3d ed. 2003).

Articles

Building Diversity Pathways from Community College to Law School (under submission).
Thoughts on American Legal Education: Past, Present and Future, 23 Chosun L. J. 3 (2016).
An Empirical Critique of JCAR and the Legislative Veto in Illinois, 65 DePaul L. Rev. 949 (2016).
The Legislative Veto in Illinois: Why JCAR Review of Agency Rulemaking is Unconstitutional, 47 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1055 (2016).
The Hidden Costs of Habeas Delay, 83 U. Colo. L. Rev. 339 (2012).
Habeas, Informational Asymmetries, and the War on Terror, 41 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1361 (2011) (with Jon Connolly).
Bagram, Boumediene, and Limited Government, 59 DePaul L. Rev. 851 (2010) (with Robert Knowles).
Back to Basics: Habeas Corpus Procedures and Long-Term Executive Detention, 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 961 (2009).
Torture and Habeas Corpus as Information-Forcing Devices, 29 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 425 (2009).
This Is To Whom It May Concern: A Guantánamo Narrative, 1 DePaul J. Soc. Just. 153 (2008), reprinted in Guantánamo: Inside a Prison, Outside the Law (NYU Press, 2009) and The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse (NYU Press, 2011).
Conspiracy to Commit Poetry: Empathetic Lawyering at Guantánamo Bay, 6 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 3 (Fall/Winter 2007).
Litigation and Delay at Guantánamo Bay, 10 N.Y. City L. Rev. 393 (2007).
Toward a Limited-Government Theory of Extraterritorial Detention, 62 N.Y.U. Ann. Surv. Am. L. 637 (2007) (with Robert Knowles).
Abrogating State Sovereign Immunity in Legislative Courts, 101 Colum. L. Rev. 853 (2001) (note).

Criminal Convictions Column

The Due Process Failings of Student Disciplinary Board Hearings, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (July 31, 2014).
Illinois Supreme Court Should Consider Reasonable Doubt Issue, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (June 25, 2014).
Fascinating Legal Questions Posed in Recent Criminal Law Cases, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (May 15, 2014).
Eavesdrop Law's Demise Means Loss of Privacy, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Apr. 17, 2014).
Pro Bono Scholars Idea Could Enhance Legal Education, Provide Aid to Needy, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Mar. 26, 2014).
Overcorrecting Jury Instruction Errors, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Feb. 18, 2014).
Life Without Parole for Juveniles and the Retroactivity Mess, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Jan. 20, 2014).
Serious Discussions Needed on Police Tactics and False Confessions, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Dec. 26, 2013).
Investigative Alerts: Smart Policy or a Way to Skirt Warrants?, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Nov. 25, 2013).
Dictionary Blues: Judicial Reasoning Muddied by Definition Wrangling, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Oct. 24, 2013).
The Evolving Right to Counsel on State Post-Conviction Review, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Sept. 26, 2013).
The Oddly Perverse Consequences of Mandatory Sentencing Enhancements, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Aug. 19, 2013).
Afterthought Crimes and the Felony Murder Rule in Illinois, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (July 22, 2013).
Recording Police Interrogations Has Worked — And Should Be Expanded, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (May 29, 2013).
"Attempted Threat" Crimes and Oduwole, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (Apr. 23, 2013).

Other Legal Writing

A Death at Gitmo, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 20, 2012).
No Room Left For Doubt: More Revelations about Guantánamo, Jurist (Jan. 19, 2009), reprinted in The Dean's Column, N. Ill. U. C. L. (Mar. 2009).
Guantánamo in the Supreme Court...Again, Human Rights Newsletter of the Illinois State Bar Association (Apr. 2008).
Guantánamo in the Supreme Court: Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back, The Dean's Column, N. Ill. U. C. L. (Mar. 2008).
Politics at Guantánamo: The Former Chief Prosecutor Speaks, Jurist (Nov. 2, 2007).
Verses of Suffering, Amnesty Int'l Magazine, Fall 2007 (cover story), reprinted in Viewpoints: Readings Worth Thinking and Writing About (7th ed. 2009).
'Booker:' A Sea-Change in Federal Sentencing?, N.Y. L.J., Jan. 21, 2005, at 5 (with Alan Vinegrad).