Doug Rutzen is President and CEO of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which has worked on the legal framework for civil society, philanthropy, and public participation in 100 countries. In addition, Doug is on the faculty of Georgetown Law, where he teaches international civil society law.

Doug serves on the Open Government Partnership’s steering committee and the OECD Civic Space Observatory’s advisory group. Doug previously served on the advisory board of the UN Democracy Fund and co-chaired the State Department’s Global Philanthropy Working Group.

Doug has testified before Congress on several occasions. In addition, Doug authored a textbook on international civil society law and has published in Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, and the Harvard International Review.

Under Doug’s leadership, ICNL received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, an organizational analogue to MacArthur’s “genius award” for individuals. Doug also received InterAction’s Outstanding Leadership Award and Georgetown Law’s Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award.

Upon Czechoslovakia’s transition to democracy, Doug was a legal advisor in the Czechoslovak Parliament, where he helped draft the country’s nonprofit laws.

Doug also taught at Charles Law Faculty in Prague and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In private practice, Doug was co-counsel on the first lawsuit against Qaddafi for the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Doug is a graduate of Yale Law School with undergraduate studies at Cornell and Oxford.