Professor Francis Boyle passed away on Thursday, January 30, 2025. Professor Boyle, an internationally recognized scholar of human rights and international law, was a member of the College of Law faculty for 47 years and touched the lives of generations of students, not to mention his colleagues.

Over his career, Professor Boyle represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. He served as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the Palestinian Authority. He also represented two associations of citizens within Bosnia and was involved in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosević for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1991-92, he served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations.

Professor Boyle served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as a consultant to the American Friends Service Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He was involved in drafting the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

Professor Boyle received an AB (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a JD degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and AM and PhD degrees in Political Science from Harvard University. Prior to joining the academy, he practiced tax law with Bingham, Dana & Gould.

Professor Boyle is survived by his wife, Betsy, and their children.

Full obituary at legacy.com.