Ira Robbins, Professor at AU's Washington College of Law, is an expert on criminal law and procedure, the death penalty, habeas corpus, prisoners' rights, privatization of prisons and jails, conspiracy, insanity, and other legal issues. He was Acting Director of the Federal Judicial Center's Education and Training Division and served as the reporter for the American Bar Association's Task Force on Death Penalty Habeas Corpus and the ABA's Task Force on Privatization of Corrections. Professor Robbins also served as a Supreme Court Fellow, as a special consultant to the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and as a member of the ABA's Task Force on Post-Conviction Remedies.

Professor Robbins is a founding member of the WCL Criminal Justice Practice & Policy Institute. His recent books include Prisoners and the Law (seven vols., 2024) and Habeas Corpus Checklists (two vols., 2025). His publications have been cited in more than 100 judicial opinions, including by the U.S. Supreme Court and the High Court of Israel. Professor Robbins' interviews and analyses have appeared on all of the major U.S. and foreign television and radio networks (including The Colbert Report, on Comedy Central) and in such publications as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, HuffPost, London Times, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Politico, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, ABA Journal, National Law Journal, and Legal Times. Robbins' recent media attention has focused on his work on the doctrine of citizen's arrest, particularly regarding the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

In 2016, in recognition of his scholarship and testimony opposing private prisons since their inception, Professor Robbins was elected to the Board of Directors of Abolish Private Prisons. The aim of the organization is to eliminate private prisons in the U.S. by challenging their constitutionality. Professor Robbins was also named legal consultant to the litigation team.

Professor Robbins' honors and awards include the Chief Judge John R. Brown Award for Judicial Scholarship and Education (1998). He is also an Elected Life Member of the American Law Institute (2007). At American University, he received the University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching (1985) and was selected as American University’s Scholar/Teacher of the Year (1988), the University’s highest faculty award. In 2010, Professor Robbins won the Pauline Ruyle Moore Award, in recognition of his scholarly work in the area of public law. In 2011, he was selected as the first recipient of the Washington College of Law Award for Exemplary Teaching. In 2015, he was honored with the Washington College of Law Award for Outstanding Service.

Apart from his law-related endeavors, Professor Robbins is an award-winning photographer.

Selected Law Review Publications

Criminal Abortion and Citizen’s Arrest, 2025 Utah L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)

Deconstructing Burglary, 57 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1489 (2024)

Citizen’s Arrest and Race, 20 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 133 (2022)

The Obsolescence of Blue Laws in the 21st Century, 33 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 289 (2022)

Sunshine Laws Behind the Clouds: Limited Transparency in a Time of National Emergency, 56 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1 (2022)

Explaining Florida Man, 49 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1 (2021)

Sham Subpoenas and Prosecutorial Ethics, 58 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1 (2021)

Perjury by Omission, 97 Wash. U. L. Rev. 265 (2019)

Guns N’ Ganja: How Federalism Criminalizes the Lawful Use of Marijuana, 51 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1783 (2018)

“And/Or” and the Proper Use of Legal Language, 77 Md. L. Rev. 311 (2018)

Regulating Gun Rentals, 64 UCLA L. Rev. 414 (2017)

Vilifying the Vigilante: A Narrowed Scope of Citizen’s Arrest, 25 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 557 (2016)

Last Words: A Survey and Analysis of Federal Judges’ Views on Allocution in Sentencing, 65 Ala. L. Rev. 735 (2014) (with U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett)

Ghostwriting: Filling in the Gaps of Pro Se Prisoners’ Access to the Courts, 23 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 271 (2010)

Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law, 41 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1403 (2008)

Guilty Without Charge: Assessing the Due Process Rights of Unindicted Co-Conspirators, 2004 Fed. Cts. L. Rev. 1

Managed Health Care in Prisons as Cruel and Unusual Punishment, 90 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 195 (1999)

Semiotics, Analogical Legal Reasoning, and the Cf. Citation: Getting Our Signals Uncrossed, 48 Duke L.J. 1043 (1999)

George Bush’s America Meets Dante’s Inferno: The Americans with Disabilities Act in Prison, 15 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 49 (1996)

The Ostrich Instruction: Deliberate Ignorance as a Criminal Mens Rea, 81 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 191 (1990)

Double Inchoate Crimes, 26 Harv. J. on Legis. 1 (1989)

The Impact of the Delegation Doctrine on Prison Privatization, 35 UCLA L. Rev. 911 (1988)

Interjurisdictional Certification and Choice of Law, 41 Vand. L. Rev. 411 (1988) (with John B. Corr)

Attempting the Impossible: The Emerging Consensus, 23 Harv. J. on Legis. 377 (1986)

Legal Aspects of Prison Riots, 16 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 735 (1982)

Review of J. Gorecki, A Theory of Criminal Justice, 94 Harv. L. Rev. 918 (1981)

Solipsism and Criminal Liability, 25 Am. J. Juris. 75 (1981)

Beyond Freedom and Dignity: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the American Gulag, 78 Mich. L. Rev. 763 (1980)

A Constitutional Analysis of the Prohibition Against Collateral Attack in the Mexican-American Prisoner Exchange Treaty, 26 UCLA L. Rev. 1 (1978)

Punitive Conditions of Prison Confinement: An Analysis of Pugh v. Locke and Federal Court Supervision of State Penal Administration Under the Eighth Amendment, 29 Stan. L. Rev. 893 (1977) (with Michael Buser)

Review of A. von Hirsch, Doing Justice: The Choice of Punishments, 77 Colum. L. Rev. 153 (1977)

Brothers of Gulag, 62 Va. L. Rev. 462 (1976)

Teaching Perspectives on Prisoners' Rights, 50 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 724 (1975)