Professor Fofana will be presenting his paper entitled "The Principles of Inter-spatiotemporal Interpretation: Interpreting Treaties across Time and Space."

Idriss Fofana is Assistant Professor of Law and Affiliate Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University. He writes and teaches in the areas of international law, comparative law, legal history, and law and colonialism.

His research examines the history of international law and other forms of inter-polity order in Africa and Asia since the 1600s. Focusing on China and Sahelian West Africa, his work has explored African and Asian engagement with transnational legal regimes through subjects as varied as the international protection of private property, non-discrimination standards, the law of treaties, and international labor migration. He works primarily with sources in Chinese (classical and modern), French, Arabic (classical), and Portuguese.