David Smolin is the Harwell G. Davis Professor of Constitutional Law, and director of the Center for Children, Law and Ethics at Samford University Cumberland School of Law.   He has served as an independent expert for the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) on intercountry adoption issues, and has served as an external expert for the International Reference Centre for the rights of children deprived of their family, of the International Social Service ((ISS/IRC), on issues related to children’s rights, adoption, and surrogacy.  He is a member of the core expert group that developed the Verona Principles on international standards for surrogacy.   He serves as a special advisor for the Swiss NGO Child Identity Protection (CHIP).  He also serves on the Ethics Committee at Children’s (Hospital) of Alabama.   He teaches in the areas of family and juvenile law, constitutional law, bioethics and law, children’s rights, human rights, law and religion, and criminal law and procedure, and writes on areas related to children and the law, the sale, trafficking, and exploitation of children, children’s rights, human rights, constitutional law, bioethics and law, and religion and law.  Much of his work focuses on the protection of vulnerable children.   Many of his publications are available for free download at bepress.com, with over 90,000 downloads.

Smolin received the Outstanding Scholar in Adoption Award from the St. John’s University Adoption Initiative in 2014.   He has presented internationally at the 2010 and 2015 Hague Special Commissions on the Practical Operation of the Hague Adoption Convention; before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Geneva, Switzerland; the 2014 International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy at the International Institute of Social Studies, the Hague, Netherlands; the Second International Symposium on Korean Adoption Studies in Seoul, South Korea; the Korean Women’s Development Institute; the University of Leiden; the Intercountry Adoption Summit, Stratford, Canada; consultations on surrogacy at the University of Verona, Department of Law, and the University of Zurich, Department of Law; the State Supreme Court of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and the NALSAR University of Law, in Telangana, India.   He has worked together with his wife, Desiree Smolin, on analysis and reform of adoption systems and practices, and sometimes contributes to the adoption blog she co-founded called Fleas Biting. 

Degrees and Certifications

• JD, University of Cincinnati College of Law, 1986. Order of the Coif
• BA, New College of the University of South Florida, applied psychology, 1980