New Liberty law school dean was State Dept. ambassador

Morse Hyun-Myung Tan will be the new dean of Liberty University School of Law beginning Jan. 1, the school announced Tuesday.

Tan was most recently the ambassador at large for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice, where he oversaw the indictment, sanctioning, capture and/or conviction of war criminals in Sri Lanka, Rwanda, the Balkans and Lebanon.

“At Liberty, we look for leaders who not only bring a wealth of experience in their field but are bold about their faith and fully support our Christian mission,” Liberty University President Jerry Prevo said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Ambassador Tan, who will help train future law professionals with the biblical principles that are so desperately needed in our nation today.”

Tan has served briefly as an attorney and counselor at law. He has worked primarily in legal academia and delivered presentations on bioethics and international human rights, especially on North Korea. He is the author of “North Korea, International Law and the Dual Crises.”

Tan has also served as a law professor or visiting scholar at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law, Northern Illinois University College of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Handong International Law School in Pohang, South Korea, where he helped found the first American law degree program in Asia.

Tan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wheaton College and earned his law degree from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He is fluent in Spanish and Korean, with some basic knowledge of French, Chinese, Portuguese and Latin.

The school’s mission attracted Tan, he said in a statement: “The mission was the single biggest factor, by a pretty large margin. It’s really pretty special to have a law school that is dedicated to following our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in, around and through the legal profession. It’s special to be able to disciple and equip students toward that end and try and impact the world through what they do and what the faculty do, too. This is what really excited me about Liberty and made me want to come and join the team.”