Faculty and Administration Profiles
Paul C. Kapfer
About
Paul Kapfer teaches International Humanitarian Law as an adjunct professor at Loyola. His undergraduate degree, from Valparaiso University, is in International Economics and French. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Switzerland at the University of Geneva School of Advanced International Studies and helped create an early environmental action network at World Scouting headquarters.
Kapfer earned his JD at the University of Iowa and was an editor of the Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems journal. He served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, mainly as in-house counsel for regional, intelligence, medical, and training commands including the Navy's boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. During the Iraq war, he advised U.S. Army generals in Baghdad on the law of armed conflict and later compiled lessons learned at the Army's Center for Law and Military Operations. Kapfer provided disaster-related legal support to victim families and survivors of the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon, the Washington Navy Yard shootings, and a flood at the Navy's personnel headquarters.
After hanging up his uniform, Kapfer earned a master's degree in Real Estate Development from the University of Maryland. He now works as Project Development Manager and General Counsel for the Renaissance Companies, a small multi-state affordable housing developer. While at Maryland he served on the board of Greenbelt Homes, the New Deal’s last intact workforce housing project.
Degrees
BA, Valparaiso University
JD, University of Iowa School of Law
MA, University of Maryland
Program Areas
International Humanitarian Law
Real Estate Law
Courses Taught
Humanitarian Law and Conflict (LAW 445)
Humanitarian Law in Practice (LAW 460)
Selected Publications
"The Terraces: 15% Affordable, Mixed-Use Proposal for 812 Silver Spring Avenue," presentation to Capstone jury, University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, College Park, Maryland 2017.
Editor, Legal Lessons Learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, Vol. III (Jul 2004-Dec 2010). Center for Law and Military Operations, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS), Charlottesville, Virginia 2013.
Self-Directed Training on the Law of the Sea. TJAGLCS Center for Law and Military Operations/U.S. Navy Office of the Judge Advocate General (Code 10) 2013.
"An Evolving Target: The Challenge of Fighting Piracy at Sea." Proceedings of the Marine Safety and Security Council, U.S. Coast Guard, Spring 2012, 58-59, available at https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/Proceedings%20Magazine/Archive/2012/Vol69_No1_Spr2012.pdf?ver=2017-05-31-120745-683.
Symposium Editor, Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, University of Iowa College of Law: World Security and Weapons Proliferation (1993); Self-Determination and Indigenous Peoples' Rights (1994).