David Kaye

David Kaye is a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, and the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. He is the 2023-2024 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Public International Law at Lund University, Sweden, and the U.S. Independent Expert to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (“Venice Commission”). He regularly lectures and has published widely in academic and non-specialist journals on issues related to human rights at domestic and international levels, accountability for serious human rights abuses, international humanitarian law, and the international law governing use of force. His 2019 book, Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet (Columbia Global Reports), explores the ways in which companies, governments and activists struggle to define the rules for online expression. After doing his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the U.S. State Department as a lawyer in 1995, serving in Washington, D.C., and The Hague, The Netherlands. In addition to his academic work, he is the Independent Board Chair of the Global Network Initiative and a Trustee of the global freedom of expression organization, ARTICLE 19. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, he has also published essays in such publications as Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, Reuters, Slate, Foreign Policy, Just Security, Lawfare, Tech Policy Press and The Los Angeles Times . David Kaye, Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet (Columbia Global Reports 2019). Book chapter, “The UN Charter and International Human Rights Law ” (pp. 3-24), The Oxford Handbook of the UN Human Rights System, Jared Genser and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein (eds.) (Oxford Academic 2026) Co-author, European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission)’s “Report on a Rule of Law and Human Rights Compliant Regulation of Spyware, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 141st Plenary Session (Venice, 6-7 December 2024)” (December 13, 2025) (available here043-e) ) “Freedom of Expression’s Crisis of Interpretation ,” Journal of Democracy (Oct. 2024) The United Nations Charter, International Human Rights, and the Hollowness of Sovereignty Claims , Oxford Handbook of Human Rights Advocacy (2023/forthcoming), available at SSRN . A review of Samuel Moyn’s Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War, 117 American Journal of International Law 177 (2023). Online Propaganda, Censorship and Human Rights in Russia’s War Against Reality , 116 American Journal of International Law Unbound 140 (2022). Convergence and Conflict: Reflections on Global and Regional Human Rights Standards on Hate Speech (with Evelyn Aswad), 20 Northwestern Journal of Human Rights 165 (2022). The Troubled World of Hate Speech Regulation (review essay), 21 Journal of Human Rights 110 (2022). Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Elgar Encyclopedia of Human Rights (eds., Nowak et al) (2022). The Spyware State and the Prospects for Accountability , 27 Global Governance 483 (2021). Prof. David Kaye and the International Justice Clinic were recognized by Korea University with an Appreciation Award for his work in South Korea as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Univision: “Widespread attack on freedom of expression”: Former UN rapporteur says the US faces the worst threat to the First Amendment. UC Irvine Law Professor David Kaye Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee on Whether EU and UK Tech Laws May Affect U.S. Free Speech and Innovation Cleveland.com: House hearing clash: Is free speech threatened more by Europe or Trump? Tech Policy Press: A National Heist? Evaluating Elon Musk’s March Through W