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John Mukum Mbaku

John Mukum Mbaku

Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics

Contact

Phone: 801-626-7442
Email: jmbaku@weber.edu
Office: Wattis Business Building, Room 241
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The Brookings Institution

About

John Mukum Mbaku is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow at Weber State University. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and an attorney and counselor at law, licensed to practice in the Supreme Court of the State of Utah, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He received his PhD in economics from the University of Georgia and his juris doctor in law and graduate certificate in natural resources and environmental law from the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is a resource person for the Kenya-based African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the Chair of the Program Committee of the AERC. Mbaku also holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia), a bachelor's degree in French language and literatures from Weber State (Ogden, Utah) and an International MBA (IMBA) from the University of South Carolina.

His research interests are in public choice, constitutional political economy, sustainable development, law and development, international human rights, intellectual property, rights of indigenous groups, rights of women, infants and children, trade integration and institutional reforms in Africa.

Mbaku is the author of Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences, and Cleanups (Lexington Books, 2010) and (with Mwangi S. Kimenyi) of Governing the Nile River Basin: The Search for a New Legal Regime (The Brookings Institution Press, 2015). His latest book is Protecting Minority Rights in African Countries: A Constitutional Political Economy Approach (Edward Elgar, 2018).

On May 22, 2017, John Mukum Mbaku was admitted and qualified as an Attorney and Counsellor of the Supreme Court of the United States.

At Weber State, Mbaku teaches courses in principles of economics, intermediate microeconomics, international trade, business calculus and economic development. He also works with international students and helps them adjust to college life in the United States. Mbaku also engages with community groups and helps them understand issues such as globalization, outsourcing and immigration and how they affect economic activities in the United States.

Mbaku also visits local schools to talk to students about the US constitution, constitutionalism and the rule of law in the United States and other countries. He is a consultant to several domestic and international news organizations, multilateral organizations and African governments, on governance and rule-of-law issues in Africa. He has appeared on several domestic and international news programs to discuss elections, corruption and other governance-related issues in Africa. His work has been cited in many domestic and international newspapers and magazines.

Education

  • JD, Law and graduate certificate in natural resources and environmental law, S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, 2010
  • PhD, Economics, University of Georgia, 1985
  • IMBA, International business, University of South Carolina, 1979
  • BS, Chemistry, Berry College, 1977
  • BA, French Language and Literature, Weber State University, 2018

Professional Affiliations

Bar Admissions

  • United States Supreme Court: Admitted 2017
  • United States Federal District Court for the District of Utah: Admitted 2011
  • Utah State Bar: Admitted 2011

Professional Associations

  • American Bar Association
  • Utah Bar Association
  • US Supreme Court Bar
  • Utah Minority Bar Association
  • African Economic Research Consortium (Nairobi, Kenya)
  • Davis County (Utah) Bar Association
  • Salt Lake County (Utah) Bar Association
  • Phi Kappa Phi
  • Society of International Economic Law

Hobbies

Traveling, with particular interest in former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean. Photography, with specific emphasis on artifacts of European colonialism—for example, while in Northeast France in summer 2016, Professor Mbaku visited and took pictures of the place where the liberator of Haïti, François Dominique Toussaint Louverture, was imprisoned and died on April 7, 1803. General Louverture was imprisoned at Fort-de-Joux in the Doubs Department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region of France.