Robert F. Drinan, S.J. is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., and has been a professor at that Law Center since 1981. Fr. Drinan specializes in international human rights, constitutional law, civil liberties, professional responsibility, and arms control. He is faculty advisor to the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Fr. Drinan received his undergraduate degree from Boston College in 1942 and a Masters Degree from Boston College in 1947. He then received his LL.B. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1949, and his LL.M. in 1950. Fr. Drinan entered the Society of Jesus in 1942 and became an ordained Jesuit priest in 1953. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1950, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bar in 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court Bar in 1955. Fr. Drinan was Dean and Professor of Law at Boston College Law School in Newton, Massachusetts, from 1956-1970. Fr. Drinan has lectured at universities throughout the United States and the world. He has been a guest lecturer in South Africa, a visiting professor at the University of San Francisco Law School Alternative College, a lecturer at Oxford University, and a visiting professor at the University of Colorado Law School, University of Michigan Law School, Swarthmore College, New York University Law School.

Fr. Drinan was a member of Congress (4th District, Massachusetts), U.S. House of Representatives, for a ten-year period from 1971 through 1981. During that time he was a member o the House Committees on the Judiciary (1971-1981), Internal Security (1971-1974), Government Operations (1975-1981), and House Select Committee on Aging (1977-1981). He also was Chair of the Subcommittee of Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee (1979-1981), and a member of the Steering Committee of members of Congress for Peace Through Law (1975 and 1976).

Fr. Drinan has made extraordinary contributions to a number of legal organizations, including the American Bar Association. Fr. Drinan is currently serving as Chair of the Standing Committee on Professionalism, and has previously served as Chair of the Standing Committee of World Order Under Law, and as Chair and council member of the Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. Fr. Drinan also served as Chair of the Advisory Committee for Massachusetts, U.S. Commission for Civil Rights from 1962-1970, and as a former Chair of the Committee on the Administration of Justice of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Fr. Drinan previously served as President (1981-1984) of the Americans for Democratic Action. He is a member of the national governing board of Common Cause, and honorary President of the World Federalist Association. Fr. Drinan also served as a member of the National Board of Trustees of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and is a member of the American Law Institute.

Fr. Drinan has received honorary degrees from several universities and has been the author of many publications. His most recent publication is The Mobilization of Shame: A World of Human Rights, Yale University Press, 2001. Other publications include: The Fractured Dream - Americans Divisive Moral Choices, Crossroad, 1991; Stories from the American Soul, Loyola University Press, 1990; Cry of the Oppressed - The History and Hope for the Human Rights Revolution, Harper and Row, 1987, Democracy, Dissent and Disorder, Seabury, 1969.