I am a legal scholar specializing in public international law, with a research focus on nationality, statelessness, migration, and the governance of identity within international and regional legal systems. I hold a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and have completed two postgraduate law degrees: an LL.M. in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University’s Washington College of Law, followed by an LL.M. in Public International Law in Vienna.
My academic work draws on prior professional experience as a United States attorney with extensive federal and state litigation practice, which informs my analysis of legal institutions, administrative decision-making, and the practical effects of legal status. My research integrates doctrinal, historical, and socio-legal methods, with particular attention to how legal identity is constructed, administered, and contested. I am committed to scholarship that treats law not only as doctrine, but as a structure shaping belonging, rights, and access to justice.
This research also informs my current doctoral research agenda on passports, digital identity, and the international legal norms governing access to legal membership and mobility.
Master of Laws (LL.M.), Public International Law
Sigmund Freud Private University - Vienna
2024 - 2025
Master of Laws (LL.M.), International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
American University, Washington College of Law - Washington, DC
2023 - 2024
Postgrado Derecho Administrativo Económico
Universidad de Montevideo Facultad de Derecho - Montevideo, Uruguay
2023
Master of Theological Studies
Harvard Divinity School - Cambridge, Massachusetts
2004 - 2007
During my studies at Harvard Divinity School, I focused my research on comparative religious ethics and completed advanced coursework in ethics, social justice, philosophy of religion, and phenomenology. This work culminated in a published research paper examining the influence of religious organizations on the United States Supreme Court through the filing of amicus curiae briefs.
Juris Doctor
University of California Berkeley, School of Law - Berkeley, California
1991 - 1994
At the University of California Berkeley, School of Law, I specialized in public international law and received Jurisprudence Awards, representing the highest achievement in the course, in Public International Law, Advanced International Law, International Business Transactions, and Refugee Law. Based on this coursework and research, I was awarded a scholarship to attend the Hague Academy of International Law in 1993.
My research was guided by my mentor Professor David D. Caron, the C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law. Professor Caron was a member of the Iran Claims Tribunal and a leader in international peace, environmental cooperation, and arbitral proceedings.
In 1993 and 1994, I received a grant from the Ford Foundation to research and publish on the Antarctic Treaty System. This resulted in a monograph published by the University of California and an article in the legal journal Ecology Law Quarterly.
Bachelor of Arts in Religion, Political Science and History
Trinity Univeristy - San Antonio, Texas
1987 - 1991
At the Faculty of Law of Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, I completed an LL.M. in Public International Law, jointly offered with UNITAR, and defended my thesis in December 2025.
My master’s thesis, From Sovereignty to Belonging: Comparative Human Rights Approaches to Naturalization for Long-Term Residents in the Inter-American and European Systems, examines how the Inter-American and European human rights systems conceptualize and operationalize the right to nationality. It focuses in particular on IACHR Resolution 2/23 and the European Court of Human Rights’ evolving interpretation of Article 8 ECHR, advancing a comparative account of nationality as a matter of human dignity, legal membership, and access to rights.
During my studies at American University, Washington College of Law, I focused on international human rights and humanitarian law. The intensive program included the study of human rights, immigration law, economic, social, and cultural rights, women’s rights in international law, the United Nations system, and humanitarian law. I studied under the guidance of faculty at the Academy on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
At the University of Montevideo I completed a postgrado in derecho administrativo económico. The courses that made up this degree were varied and included Public Sector Business Activities, Government Contracts and Procurement, Administrative Sanctions and Regulatory Enforcement, Public Employment Law, Economic Regulation and Administrative Law, and Government Structure and Administrative Organization.
At Trinity University, I completed Bachelor of Arts degrees in Religion, Political Science, and History. I also served as President of the student governance and advisory association, called the Student Association.
I was honored to receive Presidential Scholarships based on academic performance in each of the years 1987-1991. In 1991, I was selected for the Ethel Evans Department of Religion Award, recognizing the most outstanding scholarship in the department.
My prior professional career included seven years at the Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP and fifteen years providing legal services through my own law firm. I also served as Executive Director of the Law & Neuroscience Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
Massachusetts Bar Board of Bar Overseers No. 662098.