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Emily Behzadi

Emily Behzadi

Associate Professor of Law

Phone
(619) 525-1689
Department
Faculty

Biography

Professor Emily Behzadi’s research and teaching interests are in the fields of art and cultural heritage law. With a background in art history, Professor Behzadi’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary connection between the law and the arts within a national and international framework, with a particular emphasis on issues in Latin America. Her scholarship centers on the intersection of cultural heritage law, human rights, and social justice. Most notably, her published works explore the use of cultural heritage as not only a medium of expression, but a medium of marginalization. Throughout her scholarship, Professor Behzadi has examined how acts of plunder, destruction, and even sometimes the erection of objects of cultural heritage serves as a tool of oppression and even persecution. Her works have been published in journals at top-ranked institutions, including Stanford University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Rutgers Law School, and University of Toronto, among others.

Professor Behzadi is the Chair of the Cultural Heritage Section of the American Society of International Law, the Vice Chair of the International Division of the ABA’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, and an Executive Committee member of the AALS Art Law Section. Prior to joining the faculty at California Western School of Law, Professor Behzadi was an Adjunct Professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law and Barry University, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law. As an attorney, Professor Behzadi practiced in the areas of art and entertainment law, including intellectual property, contracts, immigration, and civil litigation. Professor Behzadi has served on numerous panels for such organizations as the American Bar Association and Association of American Law Schools. Professor Behzadi was recognized as one of the ABA's "40 Top Young Lawyers" and one of the Orlando Business Journal’s 40 under 40.

  • J.D. Georgetown University Law Center
  • M.A. New York University
  • B.A. Florida Southern College
  • Property,
  • Copyright,
  • Art & Cultural Heritage Law, and
  • Latinos & the Law

Visit Professor Behzadi's SSRN Author Page.

Law Review Publications

  • Emily Behzadi, Decolonizing Cultural Heritage Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (forthcoming 2023)
  • Emily Behzadi, The Fiction of NFTs and Copyright Infringement, University of Penn. L. Rev. Online (2022)
  • Emily Behzadi, Statues of Fraud: Confederate Monuments as Public Nuisances, 18 Stan. J. C.R. & C.L. 1 (2022)
  • Emily Behzadi, Destruction Of Cultural Heritage as A Violation of Human Rights: Application Of The Alien Tort Statute, 73 Rutgers University Law Review 525 (2021)
  • Emily Behzadi, The Art of Consignment Agreements, 36 Entertainment and Sports Lawyer 3 (August 2020).
    Emily Behzadi, ‘Spain for the Spaniards’: An Examination of the Plunder & Polemic Restitution of the Salamanca Papers, 11 Geo. Mason Int'l L.J. (2020).
  • Emily Behzadi, Harmonizing the Law to Protect Cultural Diplomacy: the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunities Clarification Act, 12 J. Int’l L & Int’l Rel. 9 (2016).
  • Emily Behzadi, Cece v. Holder: A Victory For Young Single Women Targeted For Sex Trafficking in Albania, 27 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 865 (2013).

    Essays, Op-eds, and Other Publications

  • Emily Behzadi, Cultural Heritage & Neutrality in War in Heritage in War and Peace (McGill University Press) (book chapter forthcoming 2023)
  • Emily Behzadi, It’s time for Latinx residents to have a national museum. Here’s why. The San Diego Tribune (Jan 7, 2021)
  • Emily Behzadi, Art Law 201: Painting the Picture of Sales of Art During a Global Pandemic, Entertainment and Sports Lawyer (May 12, 2021)
  • Emily Behzadi and Julie Gold, Remembering the Suffragists and Honoring Their Legacy, Florida Association of Women Lawyers Journal (Spring/Summer 2020).
  • Emily Behzadi, Painting a Picture of Artist O-1 Visas under the Trump Administration, The Briefs (January 2020).
  • Emily Behzadi, Cuban-Americans must effect change for separated immigrant families, Sun Sentinel, September 17, 2018.
  • Emily Behzadi, Help Wanted: Miami’s Alarming Number of Directorship Successions, Center for Art Law, April 2, 2015.