Lecturers

Luke M. Milligan is a Professor of Law and Director of the Ordered Liberty Program at the University of Louisville.  Professor Milligan teaches Jurisprudence and a range of public law offerings, including Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Constitutional Law.  His research focuses on the interrelations of natural law and political authority, with an emphasis on government searches and seizures. Milligan has been named Professor of the Year and winner of the Helfat prize for legal scholarship. In past years, he’s been a visiting professor at Emory University, as well as several universities abroad — KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Mainz (Germany), and Turku (Finland).  Earlier in his career he practiced law at the Washington, D.C., law firm Williams & Connolly. Co-director of the Summer School.

Russell L. Weaver is a Professor of Law and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville.  Professor Weaver is prolific author who has written hundreds of books and articles over the last 39 years. In addition, he has been asked to speak at law schools and conferences around the world, and has been a visiting professor at law schools in France, Hungary, Portugal, England, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Australia and Canada. Professor Weaver is particularly noted for his work in the constitutional law area, especially his writings on free speech. In addition to authoring "From Gutenberg to the Internet: Free Speech, Advancing Technology and the Implications for Democracy" (2nd ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2019) and "The Right to Speak Ill" (Carolina Academic Press, 2006) he served as a consultant to the constitutional drafting commissions of Belarus and Kyrghyzstan and as a commentator on the Russian Constitution.

Réka Varga is the Dean of the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies at LUPS and Associate Professor at the Department of International Law. Her fields of expertise include public international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, the relationship between international law and domestic law, the law of international organizations, immunity, and the law of treaties. She obtained her law degree in 2001 from the Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Faculty of Law. From 2001 to 2009, she served as a legal adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Between 2009 and 2016, she was a legal adviser to the Hungarian Red Cross, and from 2016 she has been a volunteer there. From 2016 to 2019, she headed the Department of International Law at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Between 2019 and 2020, she served as Secretary General of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, and from 2020 to 2023 she was Chief International Legal Adviser at the Ministry of Justice. Since 2004, she has been a lecturer, assistant professor, and later associate professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, and in 2022 she was appointed acting head of department. Between 19 June 2024 and 26 March 2025, he served as Deputy President of the Constitutional Court.

Balázs Bartóki-Gönczy is associate professor and head of department of Ludovika University of Public Service where he is director of the Space Law and Policy Institute. He has obtained Hungarian and French legal diplomas, specialized in telecommunications and space law. He helds an MBA (University Lyon 3) and a PhD degree (Péter Pázmány Catholic University). His principal research has been concerned with space law, telecommunications law ans regulatory questions of online media platforms. Co-director of the Summer School.

Philippe Achilleas is Vice-Dean of the Faculty Jean Monnet (University Paris-Sud 11, France). He is director of the Institute of Space and Telecommunications Law and of the Master’s Degree in Law of Space Activities and Telecommunications at the University Paris-Sud 11. He obtained his degree of Doctorate in International and European Law - with honors, from University Panthéon - Sorbonne (Paris I). Dr. Achilleas has taught various subjects, including space and telecommunications law as well as International and European Law at numerous universities in France and in other countries. He is the author of numerous publications in various subjects related to International and European Law, Space Law and Space Policy, and Communications Law and Policy. He is also consultant for space companies and spaces agencies.

John K. Bush is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His chambers are in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to joining the court, Judge Bush was a partner in the Louisville office of Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP, where he also was co-chair of the firm’s litigation department. He began his legal practice in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.  Judge Bush served as a law clerk for Judge J. Smith Henley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He was graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1986, and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1989.  He is an adjunct lecturer at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville and at the George Washington University School of Law.

Chad A. Readler is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm's Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department's largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department.‚ In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit.  He resides in Columbus, Ohio.