Ruth Okediji

Ruth Lade Okediji (born 1969) is an American legal scholar. She is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Klein Center. She also founded and serves as faculty director of Harvard Law School's Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies. Professor Okediji is an internationally renowned expert and scholar on intellectual property, trade and development. In 2017 she was appointed as part of the Creative Commons Board.

Education She received an LL.B. from the University of Jos in Nigeria in 1989. She received her LL.M. in 1991 and S.J.D. in 1996, both from Harvard Law School.

From 2003 to 2017, she taught at the University of Minnesota Law School where she was the William L. Prosser Professor of Law and appointed as a McKnight Presidential Professor.

In 2017, Okediji joined the Harvard Law faculty as a tenured professor.

She also held visiting professorships at Duke University School of Law, the University of Haifa Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and the University of Tilburg Law School.

She was awarded the prestigious Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2023.