Philip Alston is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University Law School, and co-chair of its Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. He was UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions (2004–2010), Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1991–1998), Independent Expert on reform of the UN human rights treaty body system (1989–1997), Special Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals (2004–2007), a member of the UN Group of Experts on Darfur, and a participant in the Independent International Commission on Kyrgyzstan. Alston also served as editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Law from 1996 to 2007. philip.alston@nyu.edu

Jens Bartelson is a professor of political science at Lund University. His fields of interest include international political theory, the history of political thought, political philosophy, and social theory. Bartelson, who has written mainly about the concept of the sovereign state and the philosophy of world community, is the author of Visions of World Community (2009), The Critique of the State (2001), and A Genealogy of Sovereignty (1995). jens.bartelson@svet.lu.se

Roger Berkowitz is Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, where he is an associate professor of politics, philosophy, and human rights. He is the author of The Intellectual Origins of the Global Financial Crisis (2012) and The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition (2010); co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009); and editor of HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center. Berkowitz also edits the Hannah Arendt Center Blog. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Bookforum, Paris Review Online, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, The American Interest, and many other publications. berkowit@bard.edu

Jack Donnelly is Andrew Mellon Professor and John Evans Professor at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He received his doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Donnelly is the author of Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (2013, 3rd ed.) and International Human Rights (2012, 4th ed.), both prominent works in the field. His current work focuses on cross-cultural conceptions of human dignity across history and on structural theories of international relations. jack.donnelly@du.edu

Andrew Gilmour is Director in the Secretary-General's Office for Political, Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Human Rights. He previously served as the UN Representative of the Secretary-General in Serbia (2009–2011), as well Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (Political) for the UN Mission in South Sudan and the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq. He has written for a number of publications including The Times (London), Middle East International, and The Spectator. gilmour@un.org

James Nickel is a professor of philosophy and law at the University of Miami, where he teaches and writes on human rights law and theory, jurisprudence, and political philosophy. He is the author of Making Sense of Human Rights (2007, 2nd ed.) and many essays in philosophy and law. Recent articles include “Goals and Rights—Working Together?” in Malcolm Langford et al., The MDGs and Human Rights: Past, Present, and Future (2013); “Restraining Orders, Liberty, and Due Process,” in Andrew Ashworth and Lucia Zedner, eds., Prevention and the Limits of the Criminal Law (2013); and “Rethinking Indivisibility: Towards a Theory of Supporting Relations between Human Rights,” in Human Rights Quarterly (2008). nickel@law.miami.edu

Beth A. Simmons is Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government at Harvard University. She is best known for her research on international political economy during the interwar years and on policy diffusion globally, as well as her work demonstrating the influence that international law has on human rights outcomes around the world. Simmons has directed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard, is a past president of the International Studies Association, and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. bsimmons@wcfia.harvard.edu

Alan Sussman is a former attorney who specialized in civil rights and civil liberties litigation. He has taught at New York University School of Law and is currently a visiting associate professor of philosophy at Bard College, where he teaches the philosophy of law, ethics, and political philosophy. Sussman has written about the legality of the detentions at Guantanamo Bay for Politics and Culture and the Seton Hall Law Review, and his current research focuses on the moral and legal issues of consent. sussman@bard.edu