Shaffer is a globally recognized expert on law and globalization, with a specialization in international trade law. His publications include nine books and over one hundred articles and book chapters. The work is cross-disciplinary, addressing such topics as transnational legal ordering, legal realism, hard and soft law, comparative institutional analysis, public-private networks in international trade, the impact of the rise of China and other emerging economies, and the ways trade and investment law implicate domestic regulation and social and distributive policies. Professor Shaffer is President-Elect of the American Society of International Law, where he also served as Vice President, member of the Executive Council, representative to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and Co-Chair of the International Economic Law Group. He is a recipient of multiple U.S. National Science Foundation awards, was a Shimizu Visiting Professor at London School of Economics, a Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute, a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Rome, and a Visiting Scholar at the American Bar Foundation. He has given invited lectures in over 25 countries.