Anthony D’Amato, who taught at the Pritzker School of Law for 47 years, died March 24, according to a Friday news release. The 81-year-old suffered a stroke earlier this year.

D’Amato was the Judd and Mary Morris Leighton Professor of Law until his retirement in 2015. Throughout his career, he litigated international cases and wrote more than 20 books and 110 articles.

“He loved Northwestern Law and fought hard to maintain and improve its scholarly stature,” law Prof. Martin Redish said in the release. “He is an important part of Northwestern Law history and should be recognized as such.”

D’Amato’s courses at the law school included Analyzing Human Rights and International Law, according to the release.

Prior to joining the law school in 1968, D’Amato received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. He received a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served as the editor of the Harvard Law Review, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He was a political science professor at Wellesley College from 1963 to 1966, where one of his student researchers was then-undergraduate and future Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to the release.

He was the first American lawyer to argue a case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which he won. D’Amato was an “internationally recognized and revered scholar of international law,” Redish said.

D’Amato is survived by his wife and two sons.

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