Eugene Kontorovich

Eugene Kontorovich was born in 1975 in Kyiv

Kontorovich was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1975. He moved to the United States with his parents at the age of 3. His brother Aryeh Kontorovich is a computer science professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

He studied law at the University of Chicago. He then clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

From 2011 to 2018 he was a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. Since 2018 he has taught at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he set up the Center for the Middle East and International Law. His research covers piracy, universal jurisdiction, and constitutional and international law, and he coined the term "gaolbalization" for one country sending surplus prisoners to another.

Kontorovich opposes boycotts of Israel and its settlements and has helped US states draft anti-BDS laws. He heads the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum and is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He also writes at times for The Washington Post and The Jerusalem Post.

He immigrated to Israel in 2013 with his wife and 4 children. After a divorce he married Yehudit, and they had a son. He lives in Neve Daniel near Jerusalem and keeps a religious way of life.