Given the nature of my work, I would say I wear many "academic hats". I am a comparativist and a human rights scholar. I also consider myself a law and society scholar. Although my passion has been to study the right to private prosecution and the Public Prosecutor's Offices in Latin America, currently my research agenda includes the following topics: procedural justice and impunity, criminal procedure reform in Latin America, femicide in Latin America, the use of civil (tort) law for human rights litigation, and the historical emergence of victims’ rights.
My work is best summarized in my first book Prosecutorial Accountability and Victims’ Rights in Latin America (published in 2018 by Cambridge University Press). In this book I look into how private prosecution works as an accountability mechanism in Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. Overall this book speaks to issues of legal mobilization, cause lawyering, the interactions between domestic and international law, state capacity, and rule of law.
In 2020 my book won the Outstanding Book Award from the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Recent reviews of my book can be found here (in English, written by Dr. Diana Kapiszewski) and here (in Spanish, written by Prof. Mauricio Duce).
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
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(2020) “Judicial Reform and Legal Opportunity Structure: The Emergence of Strategic Litigation Against Femicide in Mexico” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society.
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(2019) "Public Prosecutors' Offices in Latin America" In: Handbook of Law and Society in Latin America, edited by K. Ansolabehere and R. Sieder (NJ: Routledge).
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(2019) “Human Rights and Post-Transitional Societies” In: The Institutions of Human Rights, edited by G. DiGiacomo and S. Kang (Toronto: University of Toronto Press)
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(2018) Prosecutorial Accountability and Victims' Rights in Latin America (NY: Cambridge University Press).
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(2017) "The Role of Prosecutorial Independence and Prosecutorial Accountability in Domestic Human Rights Trials" Journal of Human Rights.
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(2016) “Human Rights Enforcement From Below: Private Actors and Prosecutorial Momentum in Latin America and Europe” (Co-authored with G. Dancy) International Studies Quarterly.
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(2013) "Human Rights Prosecutions and the Participation Rights of Victims in Latin America" (Co-authored with K. Sikkink) Law and Society Review. ***This paper received the 2014 Best Journal Article Award of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. This award recognizes the best journal article in the field of law and courts written by a political scientist that was published during the previous calendar year.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
WORKING PAPERS
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(August 31, 2015) "To indict, or not to indict?" OpenDemocracy.
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(January 20, 2015) “Mexico’s Crisis: Between Accountability and Criminal Responsibility.” OpenDemocracy.
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“The Emergence and Diffusion of Victims’ Rights in Latin America” (under review)
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“Specializing Justice: NGOs, Access to Justice, and Women's Rights in Latin America" (co-authored with S. D. Walsh)
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"Foreign Aid and Judicial Reform in Latin America”.
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“Democracy and Human Rights in Mexico”