After serving two years (1966–68) in
Washington, D.C. as research assistant at the
Washington Center for Foreign Policy Research,
Johns Hopkins SAIS, working on a research contract for the
United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and a further two years (1968–70) as research associate in law at the
Harvard Law School, working in Soviet, Chinese, and Western approaches to international law, in 1970 Butler was elected to the established Readership in Comparative Law at the University of London, tenable at
University College London, and elevated to a personal chair in 1976 as Professor of
Comparative Law. Till the late 1980s, he pursued principally an academic career, although he acted as a consultant to governments and international organizations. His early research pursued the interface between Soviet law and the international legal system, a subject which he later broadened to address comparative approaches to international law. The key books of this period included:
The Soviet Union and the Law of the Sea (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1971);
The Merchant Shipping Code of the USSR 1968 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1970) (with J. B. Quigley, Jr.);
Northeast Arctic Passage (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff, 1978); an edition of P. P. Shafirov,
Discourse on the Causes of War between Russia and Sweden (Dobbs Ferry, Oceana Publications, 1973);
Comparative Approaches to International Law (1978);
Documents on Socialist International Organizations (1978);
Russian Law: Historical and Political Perspectives (Leiden, A. W. Sijthoff, 1977);
The Soviet Legal System (in co-authorship with John N. Hazard and Peter B. Maggs; 3d ed.; Dobbs Ferry: Oceana Publications, 1977; new ed., 1984) and
Soviet Law (London: Butterworths, 1983; new ed., 1988). In 1982 Butler founded the Centre for the Study of Socialist Legal Systems, University College London, which in 1993 was renamed
The Vinogradoff Institute and in 2005 was removed to
Penn State Dickinson Law. He served as dean of the Faculty of Laws,
University College London (1977–79) and of the University of London (1988–90). He has been Visiting Professor of Law at
New York University Law School,
Harvard Law School,
Washington and Lee School of Law, and the
Moscow State University. For many years he was a member of the Council of the
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, including one term as Vice-Chairman. He is the author, co-author, editor, or translator of more than 3,500 books, loose-leaf services, articles, and reviews on
Soviet, Russian,
Ukrainian,
Belarus,
Tajik,
Uzbek,
Kazakh, Baltic, and other CIS
legal systems. His articles have been published in the leading law reviews of the
United Kingdom, the
Russian Federation, and the
United States. In 1985 he delivered a cycle of lectures at the
Hague Academy of International Law on "Comparative Approaches to International Law". During the late years of
perestroika in the Soviet Union and then in the post-Soviet period he took active role in law reform as a recognized expert on many areas of law. Butler's principal treatise is
Russian Law (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999; 2d ed., 2003; 3d ed., 2009), which gives a comprehensive account of the history, sources and all branches of
Russian law, as well as its place within international context. It was cited by the United States Court of Appeals in 2004. Butler maintains that the transition from a planned economy to a market economy is one which no State has previously undertaken in human history, and Russian law is the principal vehicle of this transition. He is of the view that CIS legal systems are currently in search of their legal identity and therefore present a unique laboratory of comparative law approaches. Among salient titles of recent years which pursue these themes are: •
Russian Foreign Relations and Investment Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) •
The Law of Treaties in Russia and Other Member Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Cambridge University Press, 2002) •
Foreign Investment Law in the Commonwealth of Independent States (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2002) •
Russian-English Legal Dictionary (Ardsley: Transnational, 2001; 3d ed.; Clark, NJ, Talbot Publishing, 2023) •
The Corporation and Securities Under Russian and American Law (with Maryann E. Gashi-Butler) (Moscow: Zertsalo, 1997). He has published a number of works in the Russian Federation, including the
Russian-English Legal Dictionary (Moscow, Zertsalo, 1995; 2d ed., 2001) and edited editions in the classics of Russian legal history, amongst them a revised edition of
V. E. Grabar's
History of the literature of international law in Russia, 1647-1917; an edition of
Shafirov's
Discourse on the law of nations, Kamarovskii's work on an international court, and
Catherine II's
Nakaz, usually in collaboration with Professor V. A. Tomsinov (Moscow State University). His translation of the Ukrainian Criminal Code was published by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev (2001). His translations of the
Russian Civil Code,
Family Code,
Tax Code,
Land Code,
Labor Code, and
Criminal Code have appeared in parallel Russian and English texts (Moscow, JurinfoR) in large editions. In addition to original works he has engaged in the translation of Soviet and post-Soviet legislation. Mostly these appeared in the quarterly journal
Soviet Statutes and Decisions (White Plains, New York, Sharpe Publishing) and in looseleaf services published by Oceana Publications and, from 2006 to 2024, by Juris Publishers in New York. In total he has published translations of more than 2,500 normative legal acts adopted in the former Soviet Union, all CIS countries, and Mongolia (a full bibliography is contained
International and Comparative Law: А Bibliography, London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2005). As a result, the largest body of English translations of post-Soviet legislation has been created of academic quality. Although Butler is not the only scholar who has contributed to the translation of Russian legal texts, it is mainly due to his efforts that the Western law student or lawyer has now more available to him in English translation concerning the
Russian legal system than for any continental European jurisdiction. He founded the quarterly journal
Sudebnik (1995–2007) and serves on the editorial boards of the principal English-language journals, law reviews, and yearbooks devoted to Russia and other CIS legal systems. Commencing in 2004, he became the founding editor of
Russian Law: Theory and Practice, issued by the Russian Academy of Legal Sciences (2004–2009) and Consulting and Book Review Editor, elevated from 2008 to co-editor (with Professor Michael Palmer) of
The Journal of Comparative Law (London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2005-2025). From 2003-2018 he served as a Trustee of the
Hakluyt Society and has served as a Member of the Committee for Central and Inner Asia attached to
The British Academy since its inception and as a member of
The Bentham Committee since 2003. He has been appointed editor of
Bentham's works on international law. == Helping law reform in CIS countries ==