Dr. Yassin El-Ayouty, Esq.
A Biographical Note (Download Arabic Version)
December, 2011

Dr. El-Ayouty, Esq. is Founder and President of SUNSGLOW - Global Training in the Rule of Law. This corporation is devoted to transnational judicial and legal training, especially in the developing world, and is assisted by a distinguished Board of Advisors, a corps of volunteers (Associates) from several countries, and 12 regional liaison centers around the world. In 2006 arrangements were made for joint programming with Fordham University School of Law through the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics.

A former Fulbright Scholar, he served the UN from 1954 to 1986 including being UN Spokesman during the Algerian war of independence, and later became chief of the Africa Division, and Secretary of the Council of Namibia, Department of Political Affairs and Decolonization. In 1964, he drafted the statute of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and later became its director of training. While serving at the United Nations from which he retired in 1986 as Principal Officer, Dr. El-Ayouty established the firs Peace Research Unit within the then Department of Political and Security Council Affairs.

From 1995 to 2009, he was special counsel for the then - New York City law firm of Spector and Feldman. Subsequently he established his solo practice in New York City. He is a member of several bars including New Jersey, the Bar of the US Supreme Court, the Egyptian Bar, the Bar of the Egyptian Court of Cassation (the Supreme Court of Egypt), the Federation of the Arab Bars and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs in Cairo, Egypt, which he represents before the United Nations, New York City. Other professional affiliations are: the Association of Former International Civil Servants, and the Association of Emeriti Professors of the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Dr. El-Ayouty was an adjunct professor of political science at the Graduate School of Arts and Science of St. John's University, New York City (1966-1972) and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1972-1997) where he is now professor emeritus. From 1996 to 2000, he was distinguished visiting professor at the Shepard Broad Law School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and, simultaneously, an adjunct professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York City (1996-2004). Since 1997, he is an adjunct member of the faculty of International Cultural Studies at St. Francis College, New York City. As of 2001, Dr. El-Ayouty became adjunct professor of law at the Cairo University School of Law, Cairo Egypt. He is a Fellow at the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, Fordham University school of Law, New York City, where he is also an adjunct professor of Islamic Law.

He specializes in legal and judicial reform; diplomatic and consular immunities; international sanctions; international criminal law; international humanitarian law; terrorism and the law; UN Security Council sanctions regimes, trans-jurisdictional litigation; and compensations for victims of war and other disasters. He also lectures on Islamic Law as it relates to global issues.

Prior to working on his doctorate, Dr. El-Ayouty received two bachelor degrees in education and psychology, one from the Teachers Institute of Cairo, Egypt (1948), and one from Trenton State Teachers College, New Jersey (now the College of New Jersey) (1953). Subsequently he assisted in teaching at Rutgers University, New Jersey, from which he received an M.A. in history and political science (1954).

Dr. El-Ayouty has a Ph.D. from New York University in international law and international organization (1966) and a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York City (1994). He is the recipient of the Founders Day Award for his Ph.D. work at New York University, and of the Faculty Award for the "Best Independent/Supervised" legal writing from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (1994). He was also the Thomas Volpe Distinguished Professor for Global Studies at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, New York. Dr. El-Ayouty works in Arabic, English and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.

He is the author and editor of several articles, professional studies (e.g. The Judiciary of the Republic of Yemen: A Study on Reform) and several books, the most recent of which are entitled Perspectives on 9/11 (Greenwood Press, 2004) and America's Imperial Security, 2 editions in Arabic (Cairo: 2010 and 2011). At present he is simultaneously working on two books in Arabic: the first is a guide for the judiciaries in the Arabic World on How to Deal with Cases of Terrorism(2011); the second is his memoires to be entitled: A Life By Chance.

As an international attorney, Dr. El-Ayouty was legal counsel to the U.N. Security Council's Mission to Darfur, the Sudan in 2007-2008. Among the cases which he handled in recent years are: travel bans imposed upon individuals by the UN Security Council; compensation of the families of the victims of the Egypt Air crash in US waters in 1999; and cases for CBS, the Associated Press, and Merial (a global French company) before the Iraqi judiciary in the post-Saddam era. This is in addition to cases for UN employees before New York State courts; for Mulsim leaders before federal courts in Florida; and for other US attorneys regarding compensation cases for the estates of victims o f terrorism in Egypt. In the summer of 2010, Dr. El-Ayouty was invited by the Eastern District of New York City (Hon. Chief Judge Raymond Dearie and Hon. Senior Judge Jack Weinstein) to make a presentation in Judge Weinstein's Court Room in Brooklyn on Islamic Law.

As a method of teaching of Islamic Law at the Fordham University School of Law, Dr. El-Ayouty has adopted simulation in terms of plays performed in class by his students based on Islamic Law principles. In regard to the Arab uprisings for democracy, Dr. El-Ayouty individually and through SUNSGLOW, has set up programs for implementation in the Arab world regarding various aspects of international criminal law and procedures, including the workings of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

In December 2011, Dr. El-Ayouty was made a member of the Egyptian Government - sponsored Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. Simultaneously, he was appointed adjunct professor at Al-Azhar's Faculty of Sharia and Law, teaching US constitutional law at that Faculty's English Language Section.

Dr. El-Ayouty is of dual citizenship (Born Egyptian, naturalized American); is married to Grace Lasser El-Ayouty; and they both have a son, Joseph El-Ayouty.

His email address is info@sunsglow.com.