Cindy Buys
Associate Professor of Law
and Director of International Law Programs
Biography
Professor Buys joined the SIU School of Law faculty in 2001. She teaches International Law, International Business Transactions, Constitutional Law,
Immigration Law, and a variety of other international law courses. At SIU, Professor Buys is the faculty advisor to the International Law Society and
directs the Immigration Detention Project, as well as the summer study abroad
program in Ireland. In 2008, Professor Buys was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in
Vilnius, Lithuania.
Her current professional affiliations include serving as chair of the International and Immigration Law Section of the Illinois State Bar Association, co-chair of the ASIL Teaching International Law Interest Group, Executive Council member of the International Law section of AALS, and secretary of the Board of the United Nations Association—Southern Illinois Chapter. She also is the immediate past president of Central States Law Schools Association.
Prior to coming to the SIU School of Law, Professor Buys spent ten years in public and private practice in Washington, D.C. Professor Buys was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Commerce where she advised the Import Administration in connection with its implementation and enforcement of U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty laws. In that capacity, Professor Buys defended the agency’s decisions before the Court of International Trade, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and World Trade Organization panels. Prior to that, Professor Buys was in private practice with a Washington, D.C. law firm that specialized in representing multinational ocean common carriers.
Professor Buys has an LL.M., with distinction, from Georgetown University School of Law in International and Comparative Law, where she earned the Chetwood Prize for the Most Outstanding Academic Performance. She also holds a J.D. degree and an M.A. in International Relations from Syracuse University. During her law school career, Professor Buys was an associate editor of the Syracuse Law Review and a member of the Justinian Honorary Law Society. She also was a member of the Order of Barristers, received the Moot Court Board Executive Director’s Award, and was a Regional Finalist in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Professor Buys obtained her B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany where she majored in Political Science and minored in French and Fine Arts.
Drawing on her experience in public and private practice, Professor Buys has published in the areas of economic sanctions, shipping law, trade law, arbitration, immigration, and the intersection between U.S. constitutional law and international law. She is currently working on articles relating to the law of consular relations. She also is researching the story behind the Nottebohm case at the International Court of Justice and its connection to the U.S. Latin American Detention Program during World War II.