Associate Professor of Law
Education
- J.D., Cornell Law School, 2009
- M.A., Universiteit Leiden, 2006
- A.B., Harvard University, 2003
Biography
Cody Corliss is an Associate Professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, where he teaches and writes on topics related to criminal law and international law.
Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Corliss served as a Legal Officer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, the Netherlands, having first joined the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2015.
As a war crimes prosecutor, Professor Corliss has been involved in multiple facets of the practice of international criminal law, including investigation, indictment confirmation, trial, and appeal. Among his notable work, he was part of the trial team that secured the conviction of Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war. He was also part of the appellate team that upheld the conviction and secured a life sentence of Radovan Karadžić, former President of the Republika Srpska, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war.
In addition to his trial and appellate work, Professor Corliss served in the Core Division of the Office of the Prosecutor, where he handled a broad range of legal activities, including issues related to sentence enforcement and early release, witness protection, and cooperation with national authorities. Before joining the United Nations, he worked as a litigation associate at K&L Gates LLP in Pittsburgh and served as a clerk to Justice Margaret L. Workman of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
A native of Wetzel County, West Virginia, Professor Corliss received his J.D. from Cornell Law School, an M.A. in history from the Universiteit Leiden, where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar studying migration and integration, and an A.B. in comparative religion from Harvard University.
Publications
- An International Prosecutor as U.S. Special Counsel, 2025 Utah Law Review _ (2025) (forthcoming)
- Digital Terror Crimes, 62 Columbia J. of Transnat’l L. 58 (2023)
- Human Trafficking as “Modern Slavery”: The Trouble with Trafficking as Enslavement in International Law, 71 S. Carolina L. Rev. 603 (2020)
- Prosecuting Members of ISIS for the Destruction of Cultural Property, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 183 (2018)
- Truth in Advertising: Applying Commercial Speech Regulations to the Secondary Dissemination of Scientific Research Publications, 90 St. John’s L. Rev. 883 (2016)
- Called On: A Novel Reflecting the Changing Nature of Legal Education, 6 Houston L. Rev. Off the Record 199 (2016)
- Truth Commissions and the Limits of Restorative Justice: Lessons Learned in South Africa's Cradock Four Case, 21 Mich. St. Int’l L. Rev. 273 (2013)
