An Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty member is one of six professors on the Bloomington campus to earn the university’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.
Associate Professor Asaf Lubin will be recognized this fall with the award, which is the most prestigious campus-level award available specifically to pre-tenure faculty. The award is designed to identify the most promising untenured faculty and assist them in the development of their research programs and creative activities.
“Professor Lubin has become an integral part of the Law School faculty since he joined us in 2020,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa. “At a time when law struggles to keep pace with the realities of cyber conflict and pervasive surveillance, Professor Lubin’s research has a global impact. As an instructor, he’s quickly established an outstanding reputation as evidenced by the three teaching awards he’s earned in just five years.”
Professor Lubin’s scholarship examines how law mediates the exercise of power in domains shaped by mandated secrecy, technological complexity, and national security imperatives. His work explores the regulatory architectures that govern everything from artificial intelligence and cyber conflict to intelligence gathering and informational privacy.
Drawing on tools from human rights law, private law, and international law, Lubin maps the shifting boundaries of accountability in an era where governmental authority is increasingly delegated to opaque systems and distributed technologies. In doing so, he reveals how code now functions as a central medium for twenty-first-century statecraft and argues for legal frameworks equipped to confront this reconfiguration of authority.
In addition to dozens of published academic articles, book chapters, and invited symposium contributions, Lubin is the author of two forthcoming books: “The International Law of Intelligence: The World of Spycraft and the Law of Nations” (Oxford University Press) and “Teaching Cybersecurity Law and Policy” (Edward Elgar). The Law School hosted a book launch event for “The International Law of Intelligence” earlier this month, and the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies—where Lubin is an affiliated faculty member—also hosted a panel discussion with Lubin and two national security law scholars in advance of the book’s publication at the end of the year.
Lubin plans to use part of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award prize toward promoting the book, which offers a groundbreaking exploration of how international law intersects with the clandestine world of espionage. Drawing on insights from intelligence studies, moral philosophy, and international and national security law, the book charts a comprehensive framework for understanding the rights, limits, and responsibilities that govern peacetime intelligence activities.
Outside the classroom, Lubin has established himself as a leading voice on the legal and policy challenges posed by emerging technologies. He is a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. He has also held leadership roles within the American Society of International Law, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Junior International Law Scholars Association. He has been called upon to advise both government agencies and non-governmental organizations on complex issues at the intersection of international law and technology governance.
Frequently quoted in the media, Lubin joined Lawfare, one of the world’s most prestigious nonprofit multimedia publications dedicated to legal, policy, and security issues, as contributing editor this spring.
In announcing the 2025 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award recipients, IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav said, “IU Bloomington is proud to recognize these outstanding early-career faculty whose innovative research and dedication to their fields exemplify the excellence we strive for as an institution. Their achievements reflect the vibrant intellectual culture of our campus, and we are excited to support their continued growth and discovery.”