Alison Dundes Renteln
Professor & Vice Chair, Department of Political Science
Director, Unruh Institute of Politics
Ph.D., University of California Berkeley; J.D., USC, BA Harvard
Area of Specialization: International Law, Human Rights, Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Political & Legal Theory, Law and Public Policy
Phone: (213) 740-3248
Fax: (213) 740-8893
VKC 263
arenteln@usc.edu
College Faculty Page
Biography:
Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science and Anthropology. She is a specialist in the areas of Law and Public Policy, International Law/Human Rights, Comparative Legal Systems, Constitutional Law, and Legal and Political Theory. Professor Renteln joined the Department of Political Science in 1987. Professor Renteln received her B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe in History and Literature, her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of Berkeley, and her J.D. from USC She is married to Dr. Paul Renteln, Professor and Chair, Department of Physics, California State University San Bernardino. They have two sons, David and Michael (13 and 11). Her publications include International Human Rights: Universalism Versus Relativism (1990), Folk Law: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Lex Non Scripta (co-edited with Alan Dundes) (1994), and numerous articles. An expert on cultural rights, including the use of the "cultural defense" in the legal system, Professor Renteln has lectured to judicial organizations, court interpreters, lawyers, and law enforcement groups on this subject. She has served on the State Bar Commission on Access to Justice, the California Judicial Council Access and Fairness Advisory Committee, and the California Attorney General's Commission on Hate Crimes. Professor Renteln taught judicial ethics in Manila at a symposium cosponsored by the American Bar Association Asian Law Project and the Philippine Supreme Court. She was also one of two speakers at a Comparative Legal Ethics Workshop in Bangkok cosponsored by the ABA & the Lawyers council of Thailand.
Recent Publications and Works in Progress:
Alison Dundes Renteln, The Cultural Defense (2004). Oxford University Press. Choice Outstanding Book. 2005.
Alison Dundes Renteln, “In Defense of Culture in the Courtroom.” In Rick Shweder, Martha Minow, and Hazel RoseMarkus (eds.), Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies. New York: Russell Sage, 2002, 194-215.
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Cultural Rights” and “Criminal Defenses.” International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, eds., Paul Baltes and Neil Smelser (Elsevier, 2002).
Alison Dundes Renteln, “The Rights of the Dead: Autopsies and Corpse Mismanagement in Multicultural Societies.” South Atlantic Quarterly 100 (4) (2001), 1005-1027 (special issue: Law and Culture).
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Human Rights Law” and “Indigenous and Folk Legal Systems.” Legal Systems of the World: A Political. Social. and Cultural Encyclopedia, ed., Bert Kritzer. ABC-CLIO (2002).
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Anthropology and Law,” “Culture,” “Custom,” and “Race and Ethnicity,” The Oxford Companion to American Law, ed., Kermit Hall (2002).
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Autopsies,” “Repatriation,” “Religion and Law.” Encyclopedia of Religion and American Cultures, ed., Gary Laderman. ABC-CLIO (2003).
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution: The Consequences of Conflicting Interpretations of Norms.” Willamette Journal of International Law & Dispute Resolution, special symposium issue commemorating 50th anniversary of the American Society of Comparative Law, 10 (2002), 103-115.
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Disability: Policy Implications of Divergent Views.” In Stan Herr, Lawrence Gostin, and Harold Koh (eds.), The Human Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Different but Equal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 59-81.
Alison Dundes Renteln, “Visual Religious Symbols and the Law.” American Behavioral Scientist 47 (2004), 1573-1596.
