UT law professor awarded Honorary Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth

University of Texas School of Law professor and Austin native Philip Bobbitt was awarded Honorary Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to UK/US relations and public life,” according to a release from the University of Texas.

Professor Bobbitt, who graduated from Austin High School, is the nephew of President Lyndon Johnson. His mother, Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt, was Johnson’s eldest sister.

 

Bobbitt lived in the Johnson White House and worked in the West Wing in the summer between high school and college in 1964. President LBJ shaking hands with Bobbitt at the White House on Sept. 3, 1964. LBJ Library photo by unknown

In the UK, Bobbitt is most widely known for his work on international security and constitutional law. He’s published 10 books, including The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History and Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 20th Century, the release says.

Prof. Bobbitt is the Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia University in New York, Director of the Center on National Security at the Columbia Law School, Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas School of Law and a Senior Research Fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

He has served in scholarship and public service roles throughout his life. According to the release, Bobbitt has argued for coordination with the UK in US European policy and economic planning between the US and UK in the G20.

Bobbitt lives in Austin and New York City with his wife, Maya Bobbitt, and four children: Pasha (8), Rebekah (7), and two-year old twins Louisa and Eliza. Bobbitt endows the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry awarded by the Library of Congress every other year, the release says.