Professor Jason J. Kilborn is Professor of Law at University of Illinois Chicago and a leading authority on the comparative law and policy of individual insolvency. He has written numerous articles and a book on comparative bankruptcy for consumers and individual entrepreneurs (including an analysis of Islamic law, shari'ah). He co-authored a book on international cooperation in cross-border business bankruptcy and restructuring, and he is a national reporter and co-editor of a series of detailed comparative analyses of business reorganization practices around the world. Kilborn has advised several national governments on personal insolvency reforms and has served as a short-term consultant on several World Bank Group advisory projects. Professor Kilborn chaired the drafting group for the World Bank’s landmark 2013 Report on the Treatment of the Insolvency of Natural Persons, and he drafted the World Bank Group’s 2018 report on small business bankruptcy. He was appointed to four, two-year terms as the Van der Grinten Chair in International and Comparative Insolvency Law at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, as well as a one-semester term as the Robert M. Zinman Scholar in Residence at the American Bankruptcy Institute. Professor Kilborn is an elected member of the International Insolvency Institute.
In December 2020, Kilborn used a so-called “expurgated racial slur” on an exam question. Asserting that they feared a possible threat of imminent violence, University of Illinois Chicago officials investigated him, came up with a bogus charge about a joke where he speculated that maybe his dean was afraid Kilborn would “become homicidal” if he saw a petition criticizing his exam and then placed Kilborn on indefinite administrative leave, cancelled his classes for the term, and barred him from campus. Kilborn was reinstated but only after he submitted to drug testing and a medical examination. His classes remained cancelled and were abruptly cancelled for a second semester immediately before he returned from a planned sabbatical. Kilborn was required to take diversity training and was denied a pay raise. He sued. Almost five years after the joke, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in his favor.
For his independence and willingness to fight back against arbitrary university actions, the Columbia Academic Freedom Council is honored to present Prof. Jason Kilborn with the 2025 Academic Freedom Award.
