About us

Professor Barnhizer teaches and writes in the areas of contract law & theory, conservation law, comparative law, and the jurisprudence associated with the rule of law. Currently the Bradford Stone Faculty Scholar at Michigan State University College of Law, and a coauthor of casebooks in the fields of Contracts and Commercial Transactions, Professor Barnhizer also directs the Conservation Law Program and the Journals Program at the Law College, as well as the MSU College of Law Institute for Comparative Law & Jurisprudence at the University of Białystok Faculty of Law in Poland. Prior to coming to Michigan State in 2001, Professor Barnhizer worked for the law firms of Hogan & Hartson and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Washington, D.C., and as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Richard L. Nygaard, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, and for the Honorable Robert B. Krupansky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, sitting by designation on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
Degrees: J.D. 1995, Harvard Law School; B.A. 1991, Miami University

Kevin W. Saunders
After a distinguished career as a mathematics educator, Professor Saunders turned his attention to the law. He graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan Law School in 1984, then clerked for the Honorable Kenneth Starr, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He followed with assistant professorships at the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma. During his 16-year tenure at Oklahoma, he rose through the ranks to become a full professor and to serve on the faculties of the graduate school, the College of Liberal Studies, and Film and Video Studies. He was the recipient of four awards at that institution, including the 2001 Regents' Award for Superior Accomplishment in Research and Creative Activity. He also served as Visiting James Madison Chair and Interim Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Drake University.

Professor Saunders is the author of five books: Violence as Obscenity: Limiting the Media's First Amendment Protection (Duke University Press, 1996), Saving Our Children from the First Amendment (New York University Press, 2003), Degradation: What the History of Obscenity Tells Us about Hate Speech (New York University Press 2011), Model Problems and Outstanding Answers: Constitutional Law, (Oxford University Press, 2013) (co-authored with Prof. Michael A. Lawrence), and Free Expression and Democracy: A Comparative Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He has authored dozens of book chapters, law review articles, and commentaries in legal and popular periodicals. He has taught or lectured at universities in the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Lithuania and Spain. He has also authored or co-authored briefs in federal courts, including twice in the Supreme Court.

He serves as the Charles Clarke Chair in Constitutional Law and teaches Constitutional Law and Comparative Free Expression. Professor Saunders is a member of the Order of the Coif.
Degrees: J.D. with high honors 1984, University of Michigan; M.S. 1970; MA, 1976; and PhD 1978, University of Miami; A.B. 1968, Franklin and Marshall College

Charles Szymański
Professor Charles Szymanski is currently teaching Comparative Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Public International Law and Discrimination Law (law faculty); Diplomatic Law3 and Minority Rights (political Science Faculty) at the Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Law in Vilnus. Furthermore Professor Szymanski is an Adjunct professor at MSU, and a visiting Professor at the University of Luxembourg and the Catholic University of Lublin. He is also an active attorney at law, in Michigan, U.S.A. From 1994-2006, he has been working in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, labor law and alternative dispute resolution. Professor Szymanski is an arbitrator at the Vilnus Commercial Court of Arbitration (from 2010). He also leaded, and administered a 1,00 member section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Additionally, Professor Szymanski was the Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (2004-2005), Vice Chair (2003-2004) and Secretary (2002-2003) of the same Section.
Professor Szymanski has led an attorneys’ organization dealing with Eastern European law, politics and culture; organizing of international conferences on arbitration and mediation in the U.S and Europe.
He is also the President of the Labor Law Education Society (2014 -)
Degrees: BA 1991 in History, University of Pittsburgh, JD Law 1994., Order of the Coif, University of Pittsburgh

Izabela Kraśnicka
Professor Izabela Kraśnicka holds a Phd in law and is an associate professor at the Department of International and European Law. She is a Director of the Legal Center for Research on Education and runs international relations of the school. Professor Kraśnicka teaches public international law, law of the EU, as well as the Introduction to the US legal system. She has authored and edited a number of articles and books dedicated to her research interests. She is directing the summer program with Michigan State University from the Polish side and teaches Constitutional Law of the EU in the program.
Degrees: MA in Law 2001, PhD in Law 2005, Boeing Corporation and Kosciuszko Foundation stipends recipient.

Elżbieta Kużelewska
Professor Elżbieta Kużelewska graduated with honors from Faculty of Law, University of Białystok Poland. She also graduated from the faculty of Journalism and Political Sciences, University of Warsaw Poland. Professor Kużelewska is the Head of the Centre for Direct Democracy Studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok. Her academic work involves problems of direct democracy, citizens’ participation in political life and social dimensions of European integration. She conducted (as the principal investigator) the research project devoted to the devolution in Wales. Prof. Kużelewska has authored over 70 publications including books, book chapters, law review articles and editions.
Degrees: MA in law with high honors 1998, University of Bialystok; MA in political sciences1999, University of Warsaw; PhD 2005, University of Warsaw; Habilitation 2015, University of Poznan.