Professor Brian Farrell is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Law and Human Rights. He is the director of Iowa Law’s Citizen Lawyer Program, Associate Director of the UI Center for Human Rights, and directs the College of Law’s undergraduate Human Rights Certificate program. He teaches international law, criminal law, and human rights courses. His research focuses on human rights, criminal law, access to justice, and rural practice.

Professor Farrell received his JD from the University of Iowa and his LLM and PhD from the National University of Ireland Galway (now University of Galway). Before joining Iowa Law, he practiced law in Iowa and Georgia. He was a co-founder of the Innocence Project of Iowa in 2007. In 2012 Professor Farrell was selected as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer and taught in the law faculty at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski in Bulgaria. His book, Habeas Corpus in International Law, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. He served as a commissioner on the Iowa Access to Justice Commission from 2016-2022 and taught in Irish Centre for Human Rights’ LLM program at the University of Galway from 2018-2025.

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Practice and Teaching: 

• International Law
• Criminal Law
• Human Rights
• Access to Justice
• Law and Rurality