Linda Carter
Professor Carter was a trial attorney in the honors program of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1978 to 1981. She worked on voting, housing, and education discrimination cases. She then spent four years as a criminal defense attorney with the Salt Lake City Legal Defender Association, where she tried cases ranging from DUI to murder.
In 1985, Professor Carter joined the McGeorge faculty. She has written on death penalty, evidence, international treaty issues, and international criminal procedure. She is the co-author of a treatise on Capital Punishment Law, books on Global Issues in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, and books on international criminal procedure and the role of international tribunals.
Prof. Carter has lectured and researched international criminal law issues in multiple venues. In 2005, she studied the Gacaca trials in Rwanda and conducted a workshop in Cambodia. In 2007, she served as a Visiting Professional in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court in The Hague and as a legal researcher at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Senegal in 2009. From 2003-2015, she worked with the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, which convened meetings of judges from all major international tribunals.聽 In the summer of 2013, Prof. Carter directed the first McGeorge Law and Development Practicum for law students in Kampala, Uganda. She served as a consultant for the defense in a case at the International Criminal Court from 2018-2022. More recently, she has participated in projects with the International Bar Association to assist attorneys in Ukraine.
Prof. Carter is also currently a member of the McGeorge International Board of Advisors and a trustee of the International Bar Association Foundation.聽
BA, University of Illinois
JD, University of Utah
Representative Scholarship and Activities
Recent Activities
- Co-Editor of a Memorandum on Questions Related to the Abduction of Ukrainian Children, on behalf of the International Bar Association for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, April 2023
- Panelist on Responsibility Doctrines for the International Criminal Law Module, International Bar Association and Ukrainian National Bar Association, July 2022
- Presentation on The Role of the International Criminal Court in our Turbulent Times, Yolo County Bar Association, Davis, California, November 2023
- Consultant for the Defence in the Ongwen case at the International Criminal Court, 2018-2022
- Co-author of a Guide for the Evaluation of the Deterrent Effect of International Criminal Courts on Atrocity Crimes, Nuremberg Principles Academy, 2020
- Taught International Criminal Law, McGeorge School of Law, January 2020
- Lecturer, International Criminal Procedure in the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Master of Laws in International Crime and Justice, Turin, Italy, March 2019
Recent Publications
- Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Creating Space for Non-Judicial Alternatives, Symposium on the Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Florida International University Law Review, 2021; available at
- TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK: THE DETERRENT EFFECT OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS (TOAEP 2017) (co-edited with Jennifer Schense).
- THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT IN AN EFFECTIVE GLOBAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (Edward Elgar 2016) (with Mark Ellis and Charles Jalloh).
- UNDERSTANDING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT LAW (LexisNexis, 4th ed. 2018) (with Ellen Kreitzberg and Scott Howe).
