Jena Martin

Biography

Jena Martin is the Katherine A Ryan Professor of Global and International Law at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio TX. Her research is in the field of business and human rights, where she has written extensively on many issues, including: the intersection of human rights with a number of fields including data privacy, AI and securities regulation.

Prof. Martin has emerged as a thought leader on these subjects and her work has been presented in a variety of forums including newspapers (such as The Chicago Tribune and The Houston Chronicle); law journals (including a forthcoming co-authored work in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology and a prior piece in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law); and the United Nations. Professor Martin has also co-edited and co-authored a number of books in the field of securities regulation and business and human rights, including “The Business and Human Rights Landscape: Moving Forward, Looking Back” (Cambridge University Press); “When the Levees Break: Re-visioning Regulation of the Securities Markets” (Lexington Books), and “Dying to be Heard: Businesses’ Impact of Communities” (Anthem Press).

Prior to coming to St. Mary’s Prof. Martin was the Robert L. Shuman Professor of Law and Ethics at West Virginia University.

Prof. Martin also draws heavily on her practice experience as a consultant and advisor for small businesses and her previous position serving as Senior Counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. She earned her LL.M from the University of Texas, Austin and her J.D. from Howard University School of Law.

Books

• INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, POLICY AND PROCESS, 5TH ED., Carolina Academic Press (2021)(with David Weissbrodt)(spearheaded overhaul of the casebook with a new organizational structure and streamlined content. Drafted the casebook’s first Teacher’s Manual)
• WHEN BUSINESS HARMS HUMAN RIGHTS: AFFECTED COMMUNITIES THAT ARE DYING TO BE HEARD, Anthem Press (2020)(ed., with Karen Bravo and Tara Van Ho)
• WHEN THE LEVEES BREAK: RE-VISIONING SECURITIES MARKET REGULATION, Lexington Books (2017)(with Karen Kunz)
• THE BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS LANDSCAPE: MOVING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK, Cambridge University Press (2015)(ed., with Karen Bravo)

Articles:

• Everything New is Old Again: The Veil of Scale, Platforms as Premises and the Coming Metaverse, __ YALE J. OF L. & TECH. __ (forthcoming 2024)(with Lara Putnam)
• The Securities and Exchange Commission as Human Rights Enforcer?, 18 VA. LAW. & BUS. REV. 93 (2024)(with Rachel Chambers)
• “A Change is Gonna Come:” Developing a Liability Framework for Social Media Algorithmic Amplification, 13 UC IRVINE L. REV. 155 (2023)(with Amy Cyphert)
• Reimagining Corporate Accountability: Moving Beyond Human Rights Due Diligence, 18 NYU BUS. L. J. 773 (2022)(with Rachel Chambers)
• Reckoning: A Dialogue about Racism, Anti-Racists and Business and Human Rights, 30 WASH. I. L. J. 171 (2021)(with Erika George and Tara Van Ho)
• Data Privacy Issues in West Virginia: An Overview, WV. L. REV. ONLINE (2021)
• The United Postal Service—The One Word that Makes all the Difference, 99 Texas L. Rev. Online 72 (2020) (with Matthew Titolo).
• It’s Complicated: The Challenge of Prosecuting TNCs for Criminal Activity under International Law, 29 IND. INT’L & COMP. L. REV. 219 (2019)
• Easing “the Burden of the Brutalized”: Applying Bystander Intervention Training to Corporate Conduct, 68 CATHOLIC U. L. REV. 1 (2019) (lead article)
• Parallel Worlds: Comparing Rural Development to Development in Global Communities, WV. L. REV. (with Karon Powell)(2018)(invited symposium piece)
• Hiding in the Light: The Misuse of Disclosure to Advance the Business and Human Rights Agenda 56 COLUMBIA TRANS’L L. J. 530 (2018)
• Changing the Rules of the Game: Beyond a Disclosure Framework for Securities Regulation 118 WV. L. REV. 59 (2015)
• Business and Human Rights, What’s the Board got to do with it?, 2013 ILL. L. REV. 959 (2013)
• The End of the Beginning?: A Comprehensive Examination of the U.N.’s Business and Human Rights Agenda from a Bystander Perspective, 17 FORDHAM J. CORP. FIN. L. 871 (2012)(lead article)
• What’s in a Name? Transnational Corporations as Bystanders under International Law, 85 ST. JOHN L. REV. 1 (2011)(lead article)
• The SEC and Shareholder Empowerment – Analyzing the New Proxy Regime and its Impact on Corporate Governance, BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES REPORT (2011)
• In Praise of Process: An Exploration of the SEC, Rule 14a-(8)(i)(8) and AFSCME v. AIG, 5 U.MD. J. BUS. L. & TECH 23 (2010)

Refereed Articles and Book Chapters:

• “UN Guiding Principle Number 8” in ThE RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON THE UN GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, Edward Elgar Press (2024)(Barnali Choudhury, ed.)
• “Commentary, Dodge v. Ford” in FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN CORPORATE LAW OPINIONS, Cambridge University Press (2023)(Kelli Alces et. al., eds.)
• “Corporations 101” in TEACHING BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, Edward Elgar Press (2023)(Anthony Ewing, ed.)
• “United States: Potential Paths Forward after the Demise of the Alien Tort Statute,” in CIVIL REMEDIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN FLUX, Bloomsbury Publishing (2022)(Ekaterina Aristova & Ugljesa Grusic eds.)
• “The Use of Disclosure-Based Regulation to Advance the State’s Duty to Protect” in THE RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND BUSINESS, Edward Elgar Press (2020)(Surya Deva ed.)
• “The Evolving Business and Society Landscape: Can Human Rights Make a Difference,” (with Michael Addo) in THE BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS LANDSCAPE: MOVING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK, Cambridge University Press (2015)(Martin & Bravo, eds.)
• “Transnational Corporations as Bystanders under International Law,” in BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, Sage Publications (2013)(Manoj Sinha, ed).
• Into the Breach: The Increasing Gap between Algorithmic Trading and Securities Regulation, Vol. 44, JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH No. 2 (peer reviewed journal) (co-authored with Karen Kunz)(Oct. 2013)

Awards

• West Virginia Executive’s Lawyers & Leaders, Class of 2022
• 2019 Reviewer of the Year Award – Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge University Press)
• Dean’s Award of Distinction in Teaching – Adjunct (College of Business & Economics) 2015
•  “50 Under 50,” Law Professors of Color, Lawyers of Color
• WVU ADVANCE Grant Recipient, grant provided to organize a conference on Business and Human Rights (2012 – 2013)
• Significant Scholarship Award, WVU College of Law, (awarded for “The End of the Beginning?: A Comprehensive Examination of the U.N.’s Business and Human Rights Agenda from a Bystander Perspective”)(2012)
•  WVU Public Service Grant Recipient, provided to fund an outreach program within the State of West Virginia to help local businesses understand contract pitfalls (2011 – 2012)
• Shortlist Finalist, Fletcher Fellowship (administered by Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research)(2010).
• Next Generation Fellow, The Next Generation Fellowship (part of the American Assembly Series, run by Columbia University). Invited participant in three-day conference to discuss the future of U.S. global policy. (2007)
  Recipient, Director’s Award, SEC Division of Enforcement. (2004)