Alfred C. Aman
Roscoe C. O'Byrne Chair of Law (Emeritus) - 1999
Alfred C. Aman earned an A.B. with distinction in political science from the University of Rochester in 1967. He earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1970. He joined the Indiana University (IU) faculty as dean of the School of Law and a professor of law in 1991. He served as the dean until 2002 but continued to serve as a professor of law until he retired with his Emeritus title in 2020. During his time at IU, Aman also earned the additional title of Roscoe C. O’Byrne Chair in Law in 1999 and served as the director of the Institute for Advanced Study from 2003 to 2007.
Prior to joining the IU faculty, Aman served for nearly 15 years on faculty at the Cornell Law School and was director of its International Legal Studies program from 1988-1991. He also held a distinguished Fulbright chair and taught comparative administrative law at the University of Trento in Italy in March 1998.
Aman's research has focused on globalization and transnationalism in the law. He was one of the first scholars who analyzed law from a global perspective, researching international engagement almost 20 years before this approach became the norm. He is the author of five books, and his scholarship includes numerous other articles on administrative, regulatory, and deregulatory law, especially as it relates to the global economy.
Aman served as faculty editor of the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. In this role, he hosted symposia on issues facing global governance which fostered interdisciplinary intellectual conversations between IU faculty and scholars. During his deanship, he attracted world-class faculty, grew the school's master's in law program to be one of the largest in the nation, founded a Doctor of Juridical Science program, and built the school's infrastructure for enhanced international programs and collaborations. Aman created partnerships with faculty members and established student exchange programs. He was instrumental in developing a formal relationship with the Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris II, where he taught for more than 10 years, and he developed an endowed professorship and lecture series with the University of Cambridge.
In 2020, Aman received Indiana University's Bicentennial Medal, in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the university.