Wallach was born in Superior, Arizona, the son of Albert Wallach, a millworker at the Magma Copper Company, and Sara Wallach, a local artist who helped run the town library and Little Theater group. Wallach was decorated for his service in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Arizona in 1973, followed by a Juris Doctor at the University of California Berkeley in 1976.[3] Wallach joined the firm of Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas, Nevada, as an associate, in 1976.[3] He received a Bachelor of Laws with honors in International Law from the University of Cambridge in 1981.[3] He became a partner at Lionel Sawyer & Collins in 1982, remaining in that position until 1995.[3]
As an adjunct law professor Wallach specializes in the law of war. From 1989 to 1995 he served as Judge Advocate General in the Nevada Army National Guard, with the rank of major. His responsibilities included giving annual lectures to Military Police regarding their legal obligations on treatment of prisoners.[4] During the Gulf War he served at the Pentagon in the International Affairs Division of the Office of The Judge Advocate of the Army, where he assisted in advising on the law of war and investigating war crimes allegedly committed by Iraqi leaders.
Wallach is a member of the International Law of War Association, which is a "loose confederation of military lawyers, academics, and government officials including members of the judiciary, who are interested in the advancement of a legal regime to ameliorate suffering and for the regulation of the use of armed force in armed conflicts".[5] He is also a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Federal judicial service
On June 27, 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Wallach to serve as a judge of the United States Court of International Trade, to the seat vacated by Judge Edward D. Re. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 11, 1995, and received his commission on August 14, 1995. He served on that court until his elevation to the court of appeals on November 18, 2011.[3]
President Barack Obama nominated him on July 28, 2011, to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.[6][3] His nomination was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 6, 2011, by a voice vote. On November 8, 2011, his nomination was confirmed by the Senate by a 99–0 vote.[7] He received his commission on November 18, 2011. He assumed senior status on May 31, 2021.[8]
Publications
Wallach has had articles published both in mainstream media and legal journals, and has been widely cited in the media.[9][10] Some of these include:
Afghanistan, Quirin, and Uchiyama: Does the Sauce Suit the Gander?[12]
The Logical Nexus Between The Decision To Deny Application of The Third Geneva Convention To The Taliban and al Qaeda, and the Mistreatment of Prisoners in Abu Ghraib.[13]
The Procedural and Evidentiary Rules of the Post World War II War Crimes Trials: Did They Provide an Outline for International Legal Procedure?[14]
Drop by Drop: Forgetting the History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts.[15]
A Tiny Problem With Huge Implications - Nanotech Agents as Enablers or Substitutes for Banned Chemical Weapons: Is a New Treaty Needed?[16]
Pray Fire First Gentlemen of France: Has 21st Century Chivalry Been Subsumed by Humanitarian Law?[17]
The Economic Calculus of Fielding Autonomous Fighting Vehicles Compliant with the Laws of Armed Conflict.[18]
He is also the author of "Jake and Me," a coming of age novel about a young man in the 1920s Arizona mountains.[19]
References
^"Judge Evan Wallach". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
^"Judge Evan J. Wallach". United States Court of International Trade. September 4, 2007. Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
^Evan Wallach and Erik Thomas (2016). "The Economic Calculus of Fielding Autonomous Fighting Vehicles Compliant with the Laws of Armed Conflict". Yale Journal of Law & Technology. 18: 1–25.
^Wallach, Evan J.; Wallach, Sara F. (March 3, 2015). Jake and Me. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1508646846.