Brigham Young University has announced the appointment of David H. Moore as the next dean of BYU Law. Moore, who currently holds the Sterling and Eleanor Colton Endowed Chair and serves as the Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), will officially assume his role on July 1, 2023. He will succeed D. Gordon Smith, who has been the dean since 2016 and will return to the faculty after being released.
Moore has been a member of the BYU Law faculty since 2008, teaching subjects such as international law, human rights, civil procedure, and legal scholarship. He has contributed to esteemed law journals such as Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and Virginia Law reviews. Prior to joining BYU Law, Moore clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. at the U.S. Supreme Court and worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also held teaching positions at the University of Kentucky College of Law, George Washington University Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.
As a human rights expert, Moore has served in various capacities, including on the roster of experts for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Moscow Mechanism. In 2020, he was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which oversees states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. From 2017 to 2019, Moore served as the Acting Deputy Administrator and General Counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In addition to his teaching and human rights work, Moore has been an Associate Director of the ICLRS since 2019. The ICLRS, part of BYU Law, is renowned for its dedication to international religious freedom and its global academic leadership in this field. Moore graduated with highest honors from BYU Law, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and ranked first in his class. He also received his undergraduate degree with highest honors from BYU.
BYU Law is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and is currently ranked 22nd out of 196 schools by U.S. News & World Report.
