J.S.D. Candidates

Learn more about Columbia’s current J.S.D. candidates:

Sania Anwar—United States

Dissertation 
Will examine and reinterpret tort law theory and practice.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

Education 

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School; recipient of the E.B. Convers Prize for best original essay on a legal subject
  • J.D., University of Colorado Law School; recipient of the Legal Aid and Defender Program Award for outstanding performance

Experience 

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg Academic Fellow.
  • Clerk, Judge Sandra I. Rothenberg of the Colorado Court of Appeals.
  • Teaching Fellow, Columbia Law School’s Center for Institutional and Social Change.
  • Founder, Global Scholars Project, Inc., a non-profit organization to bring primary education to marginalized and under-served children.
  • Policy Advisor, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a collaboration between artists, legal and policy experts, students, and community leaders for a just world.

Contact: [email protected]

 

Matt Bartlett—New Zealand

Matt is a J.S.D. candidate at Columbia Law School. His research centers on law and emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. His J.S.D. studies the different forces shaping the contemporary regulatory paradigm for digital platforms and AI systems, and explores how lawmakers can respond to the gauntlet of challenges posed by emerging technologies. Before commencing his doctoral research at Columbia, Matt taught for three years as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Auckland. 

Academic interests and supervisors:

  • Law and technology; regulation of emerging technologies; law and policy issues around AI and social media
  • Doctoral thesis supervisors: Professor Anu Bradford, Professor Jamal Greene and Professor Benjamin L. Liebman 

Education:

  • BA, University of Auckland ('17)
  • LL.B. (Hons), University of Auckland ('17)
  • LL.M. (High Honours), Columbia Law School ('23)
  • J.S.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School

SSRN:

Contact details:

Justina Bruera

Justina Bruera—Argentina

Justina Bruera is an Argentine lawyer currently pursuing her J.S.D. at Columbia Law School. She holds a law degree from Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), a Master’s in Administrative Law from Universidad Austral (Argentina), and a Specialization in Criminal Law from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). Her commitment to advancing legal education and human rights was further bolstered by her LL.M. from Columbia Law School, where she graduated with honors as a Fulbright Scholar.

Before joining Columbia, Justina was a court clerk in a Criminal Court in Argentina, gaining critical insights into the judicial process and the pursuit of equitable justice. Alongside her professional role, she volunteered with an NGO focused on prison education and also taught courses on gender perspectives within the Argentine penitentiary system.

During her LL.M. studies, Justina continued to make significant contributions to the field of human rights. As a research assistant at the Human Rights Institute, she worked on the TrialWatch project in partnership with the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Her leadership was further highlighted by her role as co-president of the Student Association on Trauma-Informed Lawyering, where she contributed to organize the Reading Group on Trauma-Informed Lawyering. For these contributions, she received the 'Human Rights Institute Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights.'

In addition to her academic and advocacy work, Justina actively engaged in the Columbia Law School community. She served as a teaching assistant for the Sexuality and Gender Law Practicum, a Staff Editor for the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, and represented her peers as an LL.M. Senator in the Student Senate.

 

Dissertation and Supervisors

Justina's dissertation delves into the complex intersection of criminal justice, human rights, and gender justice, with a particular focus on the unique experiences of incarcerated women. Her research critically examines the systemic inequalities faced by these women and explores pathways for reform. 

Her dissertation committee is chaired by Professor Amber Baylor, with Professor Clare Huntington and Professor Bernard Harcourt serving as committee members.

 

Academic Interests 

  • Criminal Justice
  • Social Justice and Human Rights
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Law and Philosophy

 

Education

  • Columbia Law School, J.S.D. Candidate, 2024 – Present
  • Columbia Law School, LL.M., 2023 – 2024 (Fulbright Scholar, Graduated with Honors, Columbia Chamberlain Fellowship, Delta Kappa Gamma Society International World Fellowship Recipient, Human Rights Institute Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights)
  • Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Specialization in Criminal Law
  • Universidad Austral, Master’s Degree in Administrative Law and Diploma in Constitutional Law 
  • Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Bachelor of Law (J.D. equivalent) and Notary Public

 

Contact details

[email protected]

Roy Cohen—Israel

Roy Cohen is a J.S.D. candidate and the Research Assistant of Prof. John C. Coffee, Jr. at Columbia Law School. His J.S.D. studies the impact of hedge fund activism on innovation originality of public companies. Roy served as a Senior Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel and as an accountant and an attorney at the Israel Securities Authority (Israel’s “SEC”), in the Corporations Finance Division.

Contact details

Say H. Goo—Hong Kong

Say H. Goo is Professor of Law at HKU, Deputy Director of Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research (RCCPRR), Director of Japan and Korea Programme, and founding and former Director of Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL).  He joined HKU in 1995 after over five years of teaching at University of East Anglia and the University of Exeter.  A Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators in England (FCIS) and The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (FCS), he also sits on the HKSAR Insurance Appeals Tribunal. He is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law, Honorary Visiting Professor at University of Exeter, Co-Principal Investigator of a major HK RGC research grant project on Enhancing Hong Kong as an International Financial Centre, Co-Investigator of a HK GRF research grant on Corporate Governance of Controlled Firms: An Empirical Study of Company Constitutions in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and Collaborator of a Singapore Government MOE research grant project on Legal Transplantation in the Development of Corporate and Securities Laws.  He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation at the University of Melbourne, editorial member of leading international journals and reviewer for well-known publishers and journals. He was also member of the HK Government’s Standing Committee on Company Law Reform, and Advisory Group on Corporate Insolvency Law Reform, and sat on Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Insurance Law Association. He has published widely in Corporate Law and Corporate Governance including books and journal articles that were cited by English Law Commission and the English and Hong Kong courts. He has visited many universities including Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and spoken at UN, UNCITRAL, APEC, and Insol Conferences.

His J.S.D. work takes an Economic Efficiency and Social Justice approach to reforming corporate governance arguing that in many countries, law reform in the past has often been influenced more by what is right or wrong (normative enquiry), or what is fair or unfair (justice consideration), but less influenced by economic efficiency (law and economic analysis or economic consideration) of the rules, and this sometimes leads to the adoption of the wrong rules with unintended consequences.  His thesis is that we should consider the economic principles of free market in law reform especially in the area of corporate law and corporate governance, and adopt rules that would facilitate the operation of free market and remove market failures.   In this, he does not advocate the strict adherence to cost-benefit analysis, because even if the cost of measures adopted would initially outweigh the benefit, those measures may still be necessary to maintain market confidence and integrity.  He argues that we should instead analyse if the rule to be adopted would remove the obstacle to the smooth operation of free market.  Several areas of corporate governance issues will be focused on for this inquiry, although the thesis should be applicable generally to other areas.  He recognizes that rules that allow free market to function efficiently can also lead to certain sections of the society deprived of the resources allocated under the free market system.  Where the resources are basic and fundamental to every individual’s need in the society (eg basic food, health care, necessity and housing), other measures need to be taken by the state to provide a safety net for these sections of the society so that they can have access to these resources (the social justice consideration).  This thesis will therefore also investigate whether any rules of safety net are required in the areas examined.  The thesis will also consider whether any rule change should be done through self-regulation or government regulation as they both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the institutional arrangements and culture (the consideration of cost of regulation and enforcement).  He is guided by Professor John C. Coffee Jr. and Professor Merritt B. Fox.

Contact: [email protected] 

Hicham Kantar—Lebanon

Dissertation

The dissertation will study the legal history of criminal law in the Arab world through the models established in Egypt and Lebanon and examine the incremental crystallization of the function of criminal law as a structural node of regime power through legal imperialism during the Ottoman rule of the former Mamluk lands, the Tanzimat reforms, and European (specifically French) codification ushered in by colonialism, often perceived as a sign of secular modernization. The dissertation will focus on the instrumentalization of criminal justice processes through judicial interpretation by means of legal positivism and will attempt to gauge the meaning of the principles of separation of powers and independence of the judiciary in that context. 

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Legal History
  • Theory of Criminal Law
  • Comparative Law
  • Judicial Interpretation
  • Criminal Justice
  • Doctoral thesis supervisors: Professor Madhav Khosla, Professor George P. Fletcher, Professor Amber Baylor. 

Education 

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
  • Master’s in Public Law, Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth 
  • LL.B., Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth

Experience 

  • Judiciary, Lebanon. Served as a judge in civil and criminal courts from 2006 to 2022.
  • Legal Consultant, The World Bank
  • Lecturer in Law, Lebanese American University
  • Visiting Scholar, Columbia Law School 
  • Legal Researcher for the Independent High-Level Legal Panel of Experts on Global Media Freedom
  • Visiting Professional, International Criminal Court, Liaison Office to the United Nations

    Contact: 

    [email protected]

Arundhati Katju—India

2016–2017 Human Rights Fellow

Arundhati Katju is a lawyer practicing in Indian trial and appellate courts. Her work encompasses a broad array of practice areas, including white collar defense, legal aid, and LGBT rights litigation. Arundhati successfully represented the lead petitioners in the Indian Supreme Court’s historic judgment in Navtej Singh Johar and others v Union of India, where the Court struck down India’s 157-year-old sodomy law and upheld the rights of LGBT Indians to equality and dignity. Alongside her litigation practice, she is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Contemporary Critical Thought at Columbia University.

In 2019, she was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year.

Heading her own law offices since 2011, Arundhati has a robust white-collar defense and commercial litigation practice. She regularly acts as a barrister for leading Indian law firms, having represented clients from India, Germany, Singapore and the U.S. in corruption and defense procurement cases. She has advised India’s leading public university, prosecuted pollution complaints on behalf of the State pollution regulator and been appointed amicus curiae to assist the Delhi High Court on numerous occasions.

Arundhati was also a public defender with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee, India’s top legal aid program, for over three years. In this role, she argued nearly 100 appellate cases before the Delhi High Court. Her pro bono work includes representing child sexual abuse survivors in cases against their abusers.

Arundhati holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the National Law School of India University, and an LLM from Columbia Law School, where she was a Human Rights Fellow, James Kent Scholar, Public Interest Honoree and Herman N. Finkelstein Memorial Fellow. She was awarded the CLAGS Duberman-Zal Fellowship, 2019-20.

She has taught white collar crime law at the National Law University, Delhi, and worked with India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to draft the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Her work has been published in the Indian Express, Times of India, Scroll.in, and ConstitutionNet.org; she has spoken at the UN and given a Tedx talk about the case, available here.

Her doctoral project, “From Criminal Tribe to Sexual Citizen: Creating Identities through Colonial Law, Constitutional Rights, and Global Human Rights Movements,” focuses on the genealogy of sexual, criminal and constitutional identities in South Asia through the colonial, independence, and post-liberalization periods. Her research sheds light on the history of sexual and gender regulation in South Asia in order to better develop strategies for future LGBT rights challenges in the region.

Arundhati is a yoga teacher and practitioner in the lineage of Sh. TKV Desikachar, and has taught yoga in New Delhi and New York. 

Email: [email protected]

Adi Marcovich Gross

Adi Marcovich Gross—Israel

Dissertation
Adi’s scholarship examines how bankruptcy law motivates lenders’ behavior and the way they design credit terms. Her dissertation focuses on the externalizations of changing lending practices on third parties, showing how they affect creditor conflicts, ESG monitoring, and crisis management.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Bankruptcy Law and Corporate Reorganization, Corporate Law, Corporate Finance, Contract Law, Law and Economics.
  •  Doctoral thesis supervisor: Professor Edward R. Morrison

Education 

  •  LL.M., Columbia Law School; James Kent Scholar
  •  LL.M., magna cum laude, Tel Aviv University
  •  MBA (finance), Bar Ilan University
  •  LL.B. (law and economics), magna cum laude, Bar Ilan University

Experience 

  • Teaching Assistant, Columbia Law School (Bankruptcy Law, Negotiation Workshop)
  •  Research Assistant, Columbia Law School (Bankruptcy Law, Corporate Law, Contract Law)
  • Teaching Assistant, Bar Ilan University (Bankruptcy Law, Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Tort Law, Introduction to Law)
  • Research Assistant, Bar Ilan University (Bankruptcy Law, Corporate Law)
  • Corporate Associate, Lipa Meir & Co., Israel

Contact: [email protected]

 

Shimon Nataf

Shimon Nataf—Israel

Dissertation

Shimon's dissertation focuses on legal interpretive theories from a doctrinal and analytical perspective. His work reevaluates the underlying principles of the accepted main interpretive theories, and applies the findings to relevant areas of U.S. law.

Academic Interests

Statutory Interpretation, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law

Doctoral thesis supervisor: Prof. Philip Hamburger
 

Education 

LLB, Hebrew University in Jerusalem
LLM, Columbia Law School, James Kent Scholar

Experience 

Senior Clerk, Supreme Court of Israel;
Legal Advisor to Chair of Constitution, law and Justice Committee, the Knesset

Selected Publications

Statutory Interpretation in Israel, 2023 [Heb]

Magdalena Ortega Puebla smiling

Magdalena Ortega Puebla—Chile

Magdalena Ortega Puebla is a J.S.D. candidate at Columbia Law School and a lawyer from Chile. She holds a law degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School. Before joining Columbia, Magdalena was a graduate teaching assistant for constitutional law courses at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where she was also a graduate teaching assistant and coordinator for the university’s Legal Clinic of Public Law. In this role she litigated human rights cases in front of the superior courts of Chile. She has also worked as an advisor to the Minister and Undersecretary of the Ministry Secretary General of the Presidency of Chile in constitutional and legal matters, and as a research associate at one of Chile’s leading think tanks.


Dissertation and Supervisors

Magdalena’s research explores constitutional change and constitution making theory from a comparative and legal philosophy perspective.

Her dissertation committee is chaired by Professor Madhav Khosla, with Professor Jeremy Kessler and Professor Ashraf Ahmed serving as members.


Academic Interests

  • Comparative constitutional law and legal theory.

  • Constitutional change and constituent power theory.

  • Democracy and human rights.
     

Education

Currently, Columbia Law School JSD Candidate 2024 – present.
Columbia Law School, LLM 2024. Graduated with honors. Parker Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law.
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,  LLB 2018.

Contact Details

[email protected]

Joshua Sealy-Harrington

Joshua Sealy-Harrington—Canada

Joshua’s doctoral project—“Seeing Power, Unseeing People: Disaggregating Identity”—explores the benefits and harms of analyzing hierarchy in society through the lens of “identity” and how that framing can undermine the ability for the law to be a site for progressive material and systemic change. Specifically, he is exploring (1) how deploying a vocabulary of identity in legal strategies can participate in the reification of pernicious logics that maintain social hierarchy; (2) the ways in which “identity” functions as a heuristic rooted in rendering the self—and others—legible, thereby eliding how different identity categories are co-constituting and how an emphasis on identity can miss certain powers and people excluded from its frame of reference; and (3) the benefits of disaggregating identity into its felt, perceived, and recognized manifestations, as a means of more closely tracking its work—and the law’s work on it—in society. His research is supervised by Professors Kendall Thomas (Chair), Katherine Franke, and Elizabeth Emens.

Joshua grounds his academic research by also working as a lawyer at Power Law, where he is a tireless advocate for social justice. He has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Before beginning his doctoral research, Joshua completed an LL.M. at Columbia Law School (where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Fulbright Student, and Law Society Viscount Bennet Scholar), a J.D. at the University of Calgary, and a B.Sc. majoring in mathematics at the University of British Columbia. Further, Joshua has completed three judicial clerkships, two at the Supreme Court of Canada (for Justice Clément Gascon) and one at the Federal Court (for Justice Donald J. Rennie, now of the Federal Court of Appeal). He also worked for two years as a litigator in commercial law, intellectual property law, and constitutional law at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

Joshua regularly writes and presents on issues relating to racial justice and criminal/constitutional law. His writing has been published in various law journals, The Globe and MailThe Walrus, and Newsweek. And his legal scholarship has been cited in several textbooks, as well as in judgments of the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court of Canada. He is a frequent media commentator, whose analysis has been featured on CBC News, CTV NewsVICE, and Canadaland. And he often presents to government, academic, and private institutions on Critical Race Theory and racial justice, including the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Indigenous Bar Association, and the Criminal Lawyers’ Association. Joshua can be followed on twitter @joshuasealy, where his online advocacy earned a “Best Twitter Account” award at the Canadian Law Blog Awards.

 

Joshua’s presentations and peer-reviewed publications include the following:

  • Publication – “Twelve (Angry) White Men: The Constitutionality of the Statement of Principles (2020) 51:1 Ottawa Law Review 195
  • Publication – “Colour as a Discrete Ground of Discrimination” (2018) 7:1 Canadian Journal of Human Rights 1 (co-authored with Professor Jonnette Watson Hamilton)
  • Publication – “The Inventive Concept in Patent Law: Not So Obvious” (2015) 27 Intellectual Property Journal 385
  • Publication – “Tied Hands? A Doctrinal and Policy Argument for the Validity of Advance Consent” (2014) 18 Canadian Criminal Law Review 119
  • Publication – “Assessing Analogous Grounds: The Doctrinal and Normative Superiority of a Multi-Variable Approach” (2013) 10 University of Toronto Journal of Law & Equality 37

 

Select examples of Joshua’s presentations include:

  • Presentation – “Interrupting Bias: How Systemic Racism, Discrimination & Distorted Thinking Lead to Wrongful Convictions” (Public Prosecution Service of Canada and Courthouse Libraries BC; Dec 10, 2020)
  • Presentation – Law and Social Movements (Ontario Bar Association and Roundtable of Diversity Associations – Annual Diversity Conference; Dec 7, 2020)
  • Presentation – Critical Race Theory and Systemic Racism (Law Society of Ontario – Human Rights Summit; Dec 2, 2020)
  • Presentation – Fraser v Canada: 20/20 Vision on Equality? (University of British Columbia Law – Centre for Feminist Legal Studies; Oct 30, 2020)
  • Presentation – Access to Justice and Systemic Racism (University of Alberta Law; Oct 27, 2020)
  • Indigenous & Black Representation on the Bench, Inclusion & Diversity (Indigenous Bar Association Annual Conference; Oct 23, 2020)
  • Presentation – Critical Racial Profiling (Criminal Lawyers’ Association Fall Conference; Oct 23, 2020)
  • Presentation – Racial Justice in Canada: Anti-Black Racism and the Legal Profession (Canadian Bar Association; Aug 20, 2020)
  • Presentation – Queer Theory is Dead; Queer Legal Theory Does Not Exist (Provocations in Queer Legal Studies; Yale; Sep 2019)
  • Presentation – Constitutionality of Polygamy Prohibitions (Law, Culture & The Humanities; Carleton; Mar 2019)
  • Presentation – Addressing Sexual Violence in University Teaching and Accommodation for Survivors (Always a Zero-Sum Game? Academic Freedom and Anti-Oppression; Carleton; Sep 2018)
  • Presentation – Interplay of ss. 7 and 15 in the Resolution of Impending Charter Disputes (Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences; University of Calgary; June 2016)

Contact: [email protected]

Stuti Shah

Stuti Shah—India

Dissertation
Focuses on re-imagining crime and punishment in India from a subaltern and feminist lens; employing radical empathy and engaging in a critical re-thinking of law and penal institutions that harm people and communities.  

Academic Interests and Supervisors

Education 

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School; received highest academic honor, generally given to students who are at the top of their class* 
  • B.A., LL.B. from NALSAR University of Law

* Stuti believes that the legacy of James Kent, after whom this honor is awarded, is concerning in light of research highlighting his enslavement of Black individuals, and his racist thoughts and practices.

Experience 

  • Herman N. Finkelstein Memorial Fellow
  • Teaching Assistant, Critical Race Theory Workshop (with Prof. Thomas & Prof. Forbes)
  • Research Assistant, Prof. Sturm.
  • Policy Advisor, Broadway Advocacy Coalition
  • LL.M. Pathways Government and Public Interest Fellow, with Reprieve U.S.
  • Lecturer, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, India. 

Contact: [email protected]

Maya Olga Shaton—Israel

Maya Olga Shaton is a J.S.D. candidate from Israel.

Contact: [email protected]

Gad Weiss

Gad Weiss—Israel

Dissertation
“The Venture Corporation”

The dissertation explores the theoretical models underlying some of the unique capital and governance structures applied by VCs and entrepreneurs to facilitate their collaboration, and the way these structures function – and occasionally, malfunction – under Delaware corporate law.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

Education 

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School
  • LL.M., magna cum laude, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • LL.B., Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Experience 

  • Research and teaching positions at Columbia Law School, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and Reichman University, Israel.
  • Associate, Pearl Cohen, emerging companies and venture capital 
  • Associate, M. Firon & Co., mergers and acquisitions, pharmaceuticals and life sciences

Selected Publications

  • The Emergence of Israeli Pharma Law? Following CA 2167/16 Sanofi v. Unipharm (forthcoming, available at SSRN) (with Michal Shur-Ofry).
  • Trust Parties’ Uniquely Easy Access to Rescission: Analysis, Critique and Reform, 82(5) Modern Law Review (2019) (with Adam Hofri-Winogradow).
  • Trustees Mistakes: England & Elsewhere, in Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions 663 (Globe Law & Business, 4th ed. 2016) (with Adam Hofri-Winogradow).

Contact: [email protected]

Recent J.S.D. Alumni

Learn about what Columbia’s recent J.S.D. alumni are doing now.

Michael Adams

Michael Adams—Australia (2024)

Dissertation
“The Private Law of Emergency” 

Emergency has influenced the doctrines of private law, focusing in particular upon the law of contract and equity. Building upon recent historical scholarship in this area, the thesis focuses upon how states of emergency have challenged and provided occasion for development in, amongst other areas, the doctrine of excuse. The thesis elaborates on the particular challenges posed to private law by war as between nations and by civil war; financial crisis; and pandemic.   


Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • National security law and the relationship between law and strategy; the relationship between public law and private law; and the law of emergency. 
  • Legal history, most particularly in the constitutional legacy of the English Civil War and in the history of the appellate jurisdiction.
  • Doctoral thesis supervisors: Professor Matthew C. Waxman and Professor Jamal Greene.

Education

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School; James Kent Scholar and Charles B. Bretzfelder Constitutional Law Scholar
  • LL.B. (Hons), Monash University Law School
  • B.Media (Hons), University of Adelaide

Experience

  • Barrister in Sydney, Australia, Counsel Assisting the Solicitor General and Crown Advocate for New South Wales.
  • Visiting researcher at the Lauterpacht Center for International Law at the University of Cambridge. 
  • Conference presenter, Yale Law School, the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute, and the City University of Hong Kong.
  • Associate to the Hon. Justice Stephen Gageler AC of the High Court of Australia and to the Hon. Justice Pamela Tate of the Victorian Court of Appeal.
  • Counsel and fellow, Human Rights Watch, International Justice Program (supported in part by a Columbia Law School Postgraduate Public Interest and Government Fellowship).
  • Policy researcher at the Victorian Law Reform Commission, most prominently on a report recommending the introduction of an intergovernmental medicinal cannabis scheme.
  • Lecturer, Constitutional Law, Monash University.

Selected Publications

  • Denationalization, International Justice, and the Principle of Good Faith (Opinio Juris, 2019, https://opiniojuris.org/2019/08/22/emerging-voices-denationalization-in…).
  • H.P. Lee, Michael W.R. Adams, Patrick Emerton, Colin Campbell, Emergency Powers in Australia (Cambridge University Press, 2018).  *Cited by the High Court of Australia in Palmer v. Western Australia (2021) 246 CLR 182. 
  • Michael W.R. Adams and H.P. Lee, ‘Judicial Recusal and Removal: A Comparative Study of the New Zealand Wilson Saga’ (2015) 2(2) Journal of International and Comparative Law 187.
  • Michael W.R. Adams and C.K. Wareham, “Is Judicial Consideration of Credibility and Reliability Under Section 137 of the Uniform Evidence Law a Guarantee of Fairness or ‘Moral Treason’?” (2014) 40(2) Monash University Law Review 243.

Contact: [email protected]

 María Emilia Mamberti

María Emilia Mamberti—Argentina (2024)

Dissertation
María Emilia Mamberti's dissertation explores how to reform mainstream administrative law in Latin America to make it better fit to public administrations’ constitutional commitments in the field of economic, social, and environmental rights. Her research is based on learnings from public interest litigation in different countries of the region.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Areas of interest include social and economic rights, administrative and constitutional law, and public interest litigation.
  • Doctor thesis supervisor: Professor Charles F. Sabel

Education 

  • Lawyer, University of La Plata 
  • Specialization Diploma on Administrative Law and Public Administration, University of Buenos Aires
  • LL.M., Columbia University (Human Rights Fellow; Fulbright Scholar; James Kent Scholar; Public Interest Honoree; Post-graduate Fellow in Public Interest; and a P.E.O. Grantee; Human Rights Institute Commendation for Leadership and Commitment in Human Rights; Parker School Recognition of Achievement in International and Comparative Law)
  • Master’s degree, Global Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy, University of Genoa

Experience

  • Program officer, Center for Economic and Social Rights (current position). 
  • Independent consultant, advising a wide range of institutions including the World Bank, the UNDP, the Argentine Federal Government, and different local and international non-governmental organizations on issues of social rights and administrative law.
  • Teacher, access to information Clinic, University of La Plata
  • Co-founder and president, Centro para la Implementación de los Derechos Constitucionales (CIDC), an non-governmental organization devoted to fighting discrimination, tackling corruption and promoting rights-based public policies in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Selected Publications

  • Co-authored with Charles Sabel, “Participation, collaboration and coordination to implement structural judicial decisions: an under-explored aspect of a well-known environmental litigation” (in Spanish), Regional experiences on ESCER enforcement, Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Américas, 2019.
  • “What the Supreme Court did not say about income tax” (in Spanish), Revista de Derecho Administrativo 124, 07/08/2019, Thomson Reuters (AR/DOC/1871/2019).
  • Book chapter, “Budget analysis with a gender perspective” (in Spanish), in “Género y Derecho Público Local”, comp. María de los Ángeles Ramallo and Liliana Ronconi (Colección de Cs. Jurídicas, Universidad de Palermo- Thomson Reuters, 2021).
  • Book chapter, “Social rights, the argument of their “costs” and gender perspectives” (in Spanish), in “Tratado de géneros, derechos y justicia”, comp. Marisa Herrera et al., Rubinzal eds., Buenos Aires, 2020.

Contact: [email protected]

Yaron Covo

Yaron Covo—Israel (2023)

Dissertation
“Disability Integration Outside the Mainstream”

Yaron’s dissertation documents and analyzes a phenomenon he terms “inverse integration.” That concept refers to a practice whereby nondisabled people integrate into disability-focused activities, settings, or frameworks. By examining inverse integration across different contexts, Yaron’s dissertation tests the normative underpinnings of conventional disability integration.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

Education 

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School (2023)
  • LL.M., Columbia Law School; Fulbright Fellow, Norman E. Alexander Scholar, Emil Schlesinger Labor Law Prize, Milton B. Conford Book Prize in Jurisprudence
  • LL.B., magna cum laude, Tel Aviv University; TAU Memorial Award

Experience 

  • Teaching Assistant, Columbia Law School & Yale Law School (Prof. Elizabeth F. Emens), Disability Law & Culture.
  • Teaching Assistant, Columbia Law School (Prof. Daniel S. Serviansky), Negotiation Workshop.
  • Teaching Assistant, Reichman University (Prof. Rivka Weill), Constitutional Law.
  • Senior Law Clerk, Supreme Court of Israel (the Hon. Justice Daphne Barak-Erez)

Selected Publications

  • Inverse Integration and the Relational Deficit of Disability Rights Law, 124 Colum. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2023/24).
  • Reversing Reverse Mainstreaming, 75 Stan. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2023).
  • Gambling on Disability Rights, 43 Colum. J. L. & Arts 237 (2020).
  • Beyond Individual Discrimination: Why FIFA Fails to Address Discriminatory Practices in World Football, 20 Tex. Rev. Ent. & Sports L. 133 (2019).

Contact: [email protected]

Frank Giaoui

Frank S. Giaoui—France (2023)

Dissertation
“Comparative Analysis of Contract Damages, Novel Methodologies and Converging Results”

From the perspective of both plaintiffs and defendants, the measurement of damages quantum is obviously of the utmost importance. Therefore, it is surprising to see this process left entirely to the court’s discretion—especially since the quantum is traditionally considered a question of facts. The result is that each litigation becomes a unique case calling for a sui generis outcome.

That approach leads to a structural uncertainty that is detrimental to the legitimate expectations of both parties. In practice, it deeply corrupts the fundamental principle of full recovery. I argue there exist ways to move towards a model in which the valuation of damages will be a question of both facts and law that follows rules and methods whose application will be reviewable. I begin to explore some of these ways, specifically with respect to damages for breach of contract, using two simultaneous methodologies. The first is a comparison between French civil law, American common law and international commercial law (Article 1), and the second is an empirical study involving both qualitative interviews with practitioners and the quantitative analysis of a proprietary sample of cases in which damages are difficult to measure (Article 2). Then I select two clusters of cases to implement these novel methods for Breach to Agreements to Agree/Negotiate (Article 3) and Non Pecuniary Harm to Reputation (Article 4).  I conclude with recommendations for judicial practices and a discussion of the possibility of predictive justice through shared compensatory damages schedules, which could eventually lead to artificial intelligence models. 

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Law & Economics, Contract Law, Remedies, M&A transactions, Comparative and International Law, Corporate Law. 
  • Supervisor: Prof. Avery W. Katz 

Education 

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School (2023)
  • PhD (Doct.) in Comparative Law, Sorbonne Law School
  • MBA, ESSEC Business School
  • BA Economics, Lycée Louis-Le-Grand 

Experience 

  • Research Scholar, Columbia Business School.
  • Adjunct Professor, Lorraine University School of Law.
  • Visiting Professor, ESSEC Business School.
  • Founder and Managing Partner, Hera Finance, M&A advisory.
  • Founder and President, Optimalex, Legal Predictive Analytics.
  • Manager and Partner, Bain & Company, Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) and Kingfisher PLC.

Selected Publications

  • Predictable Damages Award: Comparative Analysis on Contract Breach Litigations
    Journal of Complex Litigations, forth. (2023)
  • Damage to reputation: A comparative analysis of compensation for non-pecuniary harm
    Loyola International and Comparative Law Review, forth. Volume 46.1 (2023)
  • Breaches of Agreements to Negotiate: A Comparative Analysis of Damages
    American Journal of Trade and Policy, 9(2), pp. 77-98. doi: 10.18034/ajtp.v9i2.623 (2022)
  • Towards Legally Reviewable Damage Awards
    Arizona State, 1 Corp. & Bus. L.J 173, 173–229 (2020)
  • Indemnisation du Préjudice Economique
    L’Harmattan, ISBN 978-2-343-18067-0, 07/25/2019, 724 pages
  • Une évaluation innovante des dommages et intérêts pour traduire les faits en règles de droit et réduire l’imprévisibilité judiciaire
    Lextenso - La Revue des Contrats 1 – 03/2019, p. 164-181
  • Towards the convergence and prediction of contract damages
    ASCL YCC, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, 04/21/2018
  • Observing the global convergence in contract damages
    Associates Forum, Columbia Law School, 02/14/2018
  • Damages in civil liability (contracts and torts)
    Remedies Class, Columbia Law School, 12/07/2017
  • A comparative empirical analysis of damages as a remedy for contract breach
    Law & Economics Workshop, Columbia Law School, 10/09/2017
  • Damages as a remedy for contract breach
    Visiting Scholar Forum, Columbia Law School, 05/03/2017
  • Damages for wrongful imprisonment
    Law & Economics in Human Rights Workshop, NYU School of Law, 02/10/2017

Contact: [email protected]

 

Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or—Israel (2023)

Dissertation
“Regulating Assisted Reproduction: Between Progress and Stagnation”

Nofar’s dissertation explores the increasingly complex legal challenges that both the Israeli and American legal systems face in the ever-changing assisted reproductive technologies landscape. Each chapter unpacks a set of legal questions arising at the intersection of family law, constitutional law, health law, and bioethics. Employing feminism, masculinities, and reproductive justice as critical theoretical lenses, this project examines the regulation and practice of longstanding practices, such as sperm donation, and more novel ones, such as posthumous reproduction (PHR), a reproductive practice involving the retrieval and use of gametes of deceased persons to produce a child following the death of at least one genetic parent. It aims to uncover how the regulation of assisted reproduction shapes familial identities and institutions from both legal and social standpoints. Recognizing that courts are often “frontline responders,” deciding reproductive conflicts within a legislative vacuum, this dissertation also aims to uncover the significant role courts play in shaping legal doctrine.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Family Law, Reproductive Rights, Reproductive Justice, Gender, Health Law, Bioethics, Constitutional Law
  • Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor: Professor Carol Sanger

Education 

  • LL.M., Columbia Law School
  • LL.B., Tel-Aviv University
  • Additional Undergraduate Program (B.A.) in Political Science, Tel Aviv University

Experience 

  • Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law, Lecturer (Law, Gender, and Reproduction).
  • Columbia Law School, Teaching Assistant (Introduction to American Law; Reproductive Rights and Practices; Meanings of Motherhood: Legal and Historical Perspectives). 
  • Columbia Law School, Research Assistant (Abortion Law)
  • Supreme Court of Israel, Law Clerk for Honorable (ret.) Justice Edna Arbel.
  • Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law, Research Assistant (Political and legal theory, Labor law, Criminal law).

Selected Publications

  • Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or, Men, Fatherhood, and the Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in Israel, 36 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (2022)(peer-review).
  • Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or, Going Solo: The Law and Ethics of Childbirth During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 7 Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2020)(peer-review).
  • Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or, Reproductive Dreams and Nightmares: Sperm Donation in the Age of At-Home Genetic Testing, 51 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 791 (2020).
  • Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or, Securing Posterity: The Right to Postmortem Grandparenthood and the Problem for Law, 37 Columbia Journal of Gender & Law 109 (2019).

Contact: [email protected]

Ephraim Heiliczer—Israel (2023)

Dissertation
“Transformation of Criminal Laws: The Demise of Sodomy, Adultery, and Treason”

The first part examines the demise of the criminal “conduct unbecoming a citizen,” focusing on the crimes of sodomy and adultery . The portion on Sodomy and Adultery involves a comparison of treatment of these laws in civilian and military law, and the impact of the demise of these laws in modern western societies. 

The second part focuses on the transformation of the law of treason. The thesis being that it transformed from a law that protected the monarchy into a law of which even a King could be guilty. This portion of the doctorate focuses on biblical treason and the genesis of treason in English law from 1352-1649 and the execution of King Charles I. 

Academic Interests and Supervisors

Education 

  • LLB Hebrew University Law School
  • BSc Medical Sciences, Hebrew University

Experience 

  • Lecturer at Netanya Academic College, Israel.
  • Partner, Pearl Cohen

Selected Publications

  • Ephraim Heiliczer, Dying Criminal Laws: Sodomy and Adultery from the Bible to Demise Virginia Journal of Criminal Law Vol 7(1) (2019)
  • Basic Concepts of Criminal Law, Hebrew Version with Comments on Israeli Law, Editor.

Contact: [email protected]

Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte—Argentina (2022)

Dissertation
“The politics of abortion in Argentina. A democratic constitutionalism story”

The dissertation discusses the history of the politics of abortion in Argentina from the standpoint of democratic constitutionalism. It describes the normative world in which a legal rule criminalizing women who interrupted their pregnancies emerged in 1921, and the slow process through which the rule was re-politicized. The dissertation makes a contribution to the theory of democratic constitutionalism, by highlighting its usefulness for comparative analyses, for the theory is based on common features of democratic societies. It also contributes to the history of abortion regulation in Argentina, by underscoring the life of the law outside courts. Based on social movements theory and constitutional approaches that recognized a distributed power of creating legal meanings within society, the dissertation contributes to the array of literature that finds that individuals play a very meaningful role in processes of legal and constitutional change.

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/em1j-8k15

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Democratic and popular constitutionalism, civil society, politics of rights, judicial review and judicial systems, social movements and legal mobilization, the intersection of constitutional law and social movements in Latin America.
  • Doctoral thesis supervisor: Professor Jamal Greene.

Education

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School (2022)
  • LL.M., Columbia Law School (2009)
  • J.D., Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (2003)

Experience

  • Senior researcher at the Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión (CELE) (2020-present)
  • Lecturer on Constitutional Law (JTP), Universidad de Buenos Aires Law School (2016-present)
  • Professor of Constitutional Law and Social Change at the Universidad de Palermo, in Buenos Aires (2012-present)
  • Visiting professor of Law and Society, Universidad Di Tella Law School
  • Human rights attorney at the Association for Civil Rights (2011-2014) and at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (2009-2011).

Selected publications

  • Redes de influencia: análisis de la jurisprudencia civil argentina en materia de responsabilidad de intermediarios, Revista Chilena de Derecho y Tecnología, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2022, forthcoming).
  • The Pro-Life Movement and the Fight for the Constitution in Argentina: Between Law and Transcendence, in Latin American Law Review, No. 6 (2021): 125-149
  • Tareas pendientes para un constitucionalismo popular latinoamericano, Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de San Andrés No. 3, 2016
  • Una Mirada desde los Movimientos Sociales al pasado, presente y futuro de la Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual, en Revista Argentina de Teoría Jurídica, Vol. 14, No. 1, julio de 2013
  • Dinámicas de acción y reacción en la Corte Suprema: una mirada al caso FAL sobre aborto no punible, en Jurisprudencia Argentina, 11/7/12, JA 2012-III, fascículo n. 2, pág. 83, año 2012
  • El constitucionalismo popular y los problemas de la última palabra: Apuntes para un contexto Latinoamericano, en Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Palermo, Año 13, No. 1, noviembre de 2012, págs. 75-125
Zeina Jallad

Zeina Jallad—Palestine (2022)

Dissertation
“When Human Rights Go Wrong: The Limits of International Human Rights Law in Two Case Studies from the Arab Region”
 

This dissertation analyzes the limits of international human rights law (IHRL) in the Arab region. It examines two case studies representing opposing ends of the human rights spectrum. The first focuses on Tunisia, understood to be the only democratic and free country in the region, while the second pertains to the occupied Palestinian territories, which continues to endure the longest territorial occupation in modern history. In both contexts, arguments rooted in the normative logic of international human rights law have failed and its formal legal and procedural mechanisms have been exhausted. This dissertation seeks to examine precisely the extralegal and sometimes radical logics that have arisen in this new liminal space as alternatives to and complements of the formal structures of IHRL.
 

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Critical legal theories and sociolegal studies: where she analyzes conditions that contribute to the exhaustion of the utility of human rights law and explores possible extra-legal strategies for diminishing human suffering. 
  • Gender justice: Her near two decades of extensive work consulting for a variety of international organizations including but not limited to IIIM, UN Women, OHCHR, UNDP, UNFPA, and the European Commission, has examined women’s conceptions of justice, legislative compatibility of national law against international standards, and provided innovative solutions to legislative reform, capacity building and strategic building in the Arab region.
  • Rights based approaches to international criminal law, humanitarian law and international accountability:  As a gender legal expert, she has extended her services as to the Office of the UNHCHR, to develop human rights-based approaches to humanitarian aid in besieged and hard-to reach areas. She further assisted the United Nations Office of the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism on Syria (IIIM) in developing its innovative victims and survivors’ rights-based framework to justice and accountability with special focus on gender, cultural and religious considerations.
  • Social mobility, legal aid and public interest litigation: She has researched, taught and trained on issues related to the usage of the law as a tool for socio-economic change, impact litigation and legal aid with special focus on raising capacities of legislative drafters, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, journalists, psychosocial specialists, human rights defenders and journalists in the Middle East.
  • Broader research areas include the intersection between international human rights law, Islamic Law, social studies, gender justice and criminal law.
  • Doctoral thesis supervisor: Professor Katherine M. Franke, Prof. Kendall Thomas and Prof. Mark Barenberg

Education 

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School (2022)
  • LL.M., Columbia Law School; Recognition of Achievement, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law
  • Visiting Scholar, NYU; Law and social legal theories, gender justice
  • Summer Preparatory Course, Open Society Institute, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey; Recipient, Palestinian Rule of Law Grant from the Open Society
  • Graduate degree in practical and professional legal skills, Birzeit University, University Ramallah, Palestine
  • B.A., Law, University of Jordan Amman, Jordan

Experience 

  • Senior Partner, Zamaan Ziadeh & Partners Law Firm, https://sziadehlaw.com/about/
  • Member of the Palestinian Bar Association and the New York City Bar.
  • Gender and legal expert consulting for international institutions including UNPD, UN Women, UNFPA, OHCHR, International Center for Transitional Justice, DCAF, PILNET, and Open Society Foundations.
  • First woman lecturer-in-law, Faculty of Law and Public Administration at Birzeit University in Ramallah, Palestine.
  • Legal Expert and Manager, biggest donor-funded project to develop the Palestinian Bar Association, appointed by the European Union.
  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Columbia University. Affiliated with the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Co-taught "Occupation: Law, Politics, Morality," together with the Director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Professor Katherine Franke.

Selected Publications

Forthcoming, Zeina Jallad Charpentier, Identity Annexation: Israel’s non-Territorial and Psychic Annexation of the West Bank Samaritans in The Occupied Palestinian Territories, Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Columbia University, New York

2022, Zeina Jallad Charpentier, Plural Belonging: The Samaritans’ Negotiation of Space in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, American University International Law Review, Volume 37

2016, Zeina Jallad, The Power of the Body: The Corporeal Logic of Law and Social Change in the Arab Spring, Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Columbia University, New York

2018, Zeina Jallad Charpentier, Gender Justice & The Law: Assessment of Laws Affecting Gender Equality in The Arab States Region, UN Women

2016, Zeina Jallad, Public Interest Law in the MENA Region: Cause Lawyering in Egypt and Palestine, PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Lawyering, New York

2012, Zeina Jallad, Palestinian Women and Security: A Legal Analysis, Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)

2011, Palestinian Taskforce: assisted the Palestinian Ministry of Women Affairs and the Palestinian Legislative Council (“PLC”) with adopting new legislation that improved the security of Palestinian women and girls.

2006, National Legislative Committee: commissioned to amend Palestinian Child Law No. 7.

Lihi Yona—Israel (2022)

Dissertation
“Liminally-Recognized Groups: Between Equality and Dignity”

Explores the possibilities of raceless critical race theory, and of a post-identitarian, anti-essentialist reconceptualization of anti-discrimination law. Focusing specifically on workplace protections, she examines the promise offered by employment law to liminally recognized groups.

Academic Interests and Supervisors

  • Applying critical race methodologies to the intersection of dignity, equality and recognition. Her scholarship centers groups who experience liminal legal recognition - mainly Mizrahi Jews in Israel, as well as trans and non-binary people in Israel and the United States. She is interested in exploring the limitations of the concept of equality within anti-discrimination law—limitations stemming mainly from its dependency on legal recognition—alongside the perils of dignity-based universal protections, rooted in dignity’s cultural and racial biases.
  • Doctoral thesis supervisor: Prof. Kendall Thomas

Education 

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School
  • LL.M, Columbia Law School; Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Jeffrey Williams Memorial Prize for Critical Rights Analysis and the Norman E. Alexander Scholarship
  • M.A. magna cum laude, philosophy, University of Haifa
  • LL.B., summa cum laude, University of Haifa

Experience 

  • Post-Doctoral Fellow, Blum Graduate School, University of Haifa
  • Fellow, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
  • Young scholar at the Israel Democracy Institute.
  • Intern, Israeli Ministry of Justice.

Selected Publications

  • Identity at Work, 43(1) Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 139 (2022)
  • Coming Out of the Shadows: The Non-Western Critique of Dignity, 27(1) Columbia Journal of European Law 34 (2021)
  • The Limits of Transgender Incarceration Reform, 31(2) Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 201 (2020) (with Ido Katri)
  • Whiteness at Work, 24(1) Michigan Journal of Race and Law 111 (2018)

Danielle Ayala Chaim—Israel (2022)

Dissertation
“Institutional Ownership in the Twenty-First Century: Perils, Pitfalls, and Prospects”

The recent massive shift by Americans into investment funds and the attendant rise of a core group of institutional shareholders have transformed the financial market landscape. Dr. Chaim's research explores the economic and policy implications associated with this shift to intermediated capital markets. The underlying assumption has always been that the growing presence of institutional investors in capital markets would improve the corporate governance of their portfolio companies, thereby reducing managerial agency costs and increasing firm value. Through her law and economic analysis, she explains why the reality deviates from that ideal. Using two novel perspectives—tax and antitrust—her dissertation reveals the disruptive effects and market distortions associated with the rise of institutional ownership. This interdisciplinary research sheds light on the intersection between capital markets, corporate governance, and regulatory risks, and calls for significant policy reforms and adjustments to deal with the growing power of financial intermediaries on corporate America and the public at large.  

Academic Interests and Supervisors

 

Education 

  • J.S.D., Columbia Law School (2022)
  • LL.M., Columbia University Law School; James Kent Scholar (2018)
  • LL.B., magna cum laude, in accounting, Tel Aviv University (2013)

 

Experience 

  • Assistant Professor, Bar Ilan University 
  • Corporate Associate, Covington & Burling LLP (US) 
  • Senior Associate, PwC (Israel)
  • Legal intern, Tadmor & Co. 
  • Various research and teaching appointments at Columbia University, Tel Aviv University and The College of Management Academic Studies

Selected Publications

The Agency Costs of Mutual Funds, 25 Florida Tax Review (forthcoming)