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J.S.D. Candidate Profiles

J.S.D. Candidate Profiles

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Akshat Agarwal

Akshat Agarwal is a J.S.D. candidate and Tutor in Law at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2022. Before coming to Yale, Akshat worked as a legal and policy researcher with a leading think tank in India. Akshat researches and writes about the legal regulation of the family and how it gets shaped by changes in society & culture, political economy, and technology. His J.S.D. dissertation seeks to understand how legal regimes based in rights transform family law in different national contexts. He is currently focusing on transformations in the law of parent-child relationships across jurisdiction.

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Kungyan Bao

Kungyan Bao

Kangyun Bao is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he received his LL.M. degree in 2022. Kangyun also earned a Ph.D., LL.M., LL.B., and B.A. degree at Peking University in China. His academic interests include law and economic development, corporate governance and financial regulation, international economic law, and empirical legal studies. His J.S.D. dissertation explores the role of law and policy in promoting technological innovation and industrial upgrading in China’s solar industry.

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Delfina Beguerie

Delfina Beguerie is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she also obtained her LL.M. degree in 2017. In 2016-2017, she was a Fulbright Scholar. Before coming to Yale, Delfina taught constitutional law at Universidad de San Andrés and served as a junior clerk at the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of human rights and constitutional law, and her J.S.D. dissertation focuses on the ways in which different communities recognize constitutional meaning to human rights.

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Violeta Canaves

Violeta Canaves is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she also earned her LL.M. degree in 2015. She served as a Tutor in Law for the 2016-17 academic year. Violeta's academic interests include constitutional law, federalism, human rights, law and social movements, and women's studies. Her J.S.D. dissertation focuses on how relations and tensions between institutional and popular understandings about human rights shape the meaning of the Constitution in Argentina.

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Tomas E. Churba

Tomas E. Churba is an Argentinean J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. in 2023. He studied law at the University of Buenos Aires and taught Analytical Jurisprudence under Professor Martin Böhmer's guidance. Tomás also researched at Torcuato Di Tella University while studying under the guidance of Ezequiel Monti and Alejandro Chehtman. His academic interests encompass normative jurisprudence, criminal law, and moral philosophy. His research delves into the nature of wrongs and justifications in ordinary morality and law, the boundaries of moral standing to complain, and the significance of private wrongs in criminal law. 

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Andrés Caro

Andrés Caro

Andrés Caro Borrero is a Colombian lawyer currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School, where he also obtained his LL.M. degree in 2020 and for which he received the Henry Ralph Ringe Scholarship, after which he was a Fox Fellow for the year 2020-2021. He received the 2020 Barry S. Cohen Prize for the Best Paper on a Subject Related to Literature and the Law from Yale Law School. 

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Patricia Cruz

Patricia Cruz Marin

Patricia Cruz Marin is a Mexican lawyer and political scientist currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School, where she also obtained her LL.M. degree in 2020. From 2020-2021, she was a Bernstein Fellow at the Center for Justice International Law (CEJIL), representing victims of human rights violations at the Inter-American System. Her main research topics are the impact and compliance of the Inter-American System of Human Rights decisions, remedies in cases of serious human rights violations, mechanisms to fight impunity in Latin America, and the pedagogy of legal education.

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Liat Dasht

Liat Dasht

Liat Dasht is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School. She holds an LL.M. from Yale (2022), pursued as a Fulbright Scholar, and an LL.B. and a B.A. in Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2019). Liat’s research revolves around the intersections of law and analytic philosophy, especially in the areas of constitutional law, human rights, free speech, contract law, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of mind and action, and metaphysics. Her dissertation deals with the moral grounds for collective agents’ responsibility and rights and their implications for the desired scope and interpretation of nation-states’ legal responsibility and rights..

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Tasneem Deo

Tasneem Deo

Tasneem Deo is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she earned her LL.M. degree in 2014 and served as a Tutor in Law in 2015-16. Her academic interests center around the study of female criminality. Her doctoral work, supported by the MacMillan Fellowship at Yale University, seeks to analyze empirically whether gender per se or conformity to gender stereotypes affects decision making in Indian criminal courts. Tasneem completed an M.Sc. degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford in 2015 and has been a Guest Lecturer at the National Law School of India University Bangalore since July 2014.

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Doruk Erhan

Dorouk Erhan

Doruk Erhan is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, having completed his LL.M. degree in 2022 as a Fulbright Scholar. Before Yale, he practiced law in Turkey, specializing in international transactions and appellate litigation. In 2022–2023, he was a Fox Visiting Fellow at Sciences Po Paris.

Doruk’s research focuses on dispute resolution, private law theory, comparative law. His dissertation explores international arbitration's cross-jurisdictional evolution and evaluates its expanded role in an era of transnational commerce, which challenges the normative status and relevance of the state as a site of social cohesion. 

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Luis Eugenio García-Huidobro

Luis Eugenio García-Huidobro is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he also obtained his LL.M. degree as a Fulbright Scholar in 2017. In 2017-2018, Eugenio was a Fox Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. Before coming to Yale, Eugenio was an assistant professor of law at the Catholic University of Chile and a practicing lawyer in one of Latin America’s largest law firms, where he argued several cases before the Chilean Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal. He has also been a visiting research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Eugenio’s research focuses on administrative law, comparative public law, institutional design, and the sociology of law.

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Adi Gal

Adi Gal

Adi Gal is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she also obtained her LL.M. degree in 2020. She is an E. David Fischman fellow. Before coming to Yale, Adi worked for the Deputy Attorney General (International Law) in Israel, and as a researcher in a leading Israeli think tank. She was also a practicing lawyer specializing in complex commercial litigation and arbitration cases in the private sector. Adi’s dissertation examines the history and practice of remediation for international human rights law and international humanitarian law violations. The project suggests a theoretical framework that draws on private law methodologies, particularly torts. Her research areas include Private Law Theory, Constitutional Law, International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, and Public Policy.

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Sarah Ganty

Sarah Ganty is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School. Merging theory, empirical and normative legal analysis in addressing the relationship between citizenship and socioeconomic inequalities, Sarah’s thesis introduces the concept of “merizenship”, which helps to trace the differences in access to rights encountered by the rich and highly educated compared with all others. Sarah is also an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Université Saint Louis (Brussels) where she teaches EU law and Philosophy of Human Rights. She defended her Ph.D. at the ULB in February 2019 and earned an LL.M from Yale Law School in 2018, where she was a Fulbright fellow.

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Akriti Gaur

Akriti Gaur is an Indian lawyer currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School where she also serves as a Tutor in Law. She obtained her LL.M. degree from Yale Law School in 2022. Before coming to Yale, Akriti was a policy advisor and an independent researcher focusing on technology and human rights in India. Her doctoral project focuses on constitutional resilience and the distortion of the digital public sphere, particularly the impact of emerging social media platforms on authoritarianism and speech control in the Majority world.

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Sergio Giuliano

Sergio Giuliano

Sergio Giuliano is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2016 as a Fulbright Scholar. Before coming to Yale he obtained his LL.B. summa cum laude from Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina, where he later taught Constitutional Law and Interpretation of the Law. He also served as legal advisor to two subsequent Minority Leaders at the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. After his LL.M. Sergio clerked at the European Court of Human Rights as a Robina Human Rights Fellow and obtained his M.P.P. with distinction from the University of Oxford as a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann/Chevening Scholar. He is currently a Human Rights Officer at the UNOHCHR where he works on individual complaints before the UN Treaty Bodies. Sergio has researched and published on globalization backlash and its impact on international human rights law.

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Martín Haissiner

Martín teaches both graduate and post-graduate courses at Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad de San Andrés. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and is the director of the Criminal Area of the Argentine Federal Association of Legal Bars (FACA). He is also a researcher and member of the academic counsel at the Law and Neurosciences Institute (INEDE).

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Xinyu Huang

Xinyu Huang is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she earned her LL.M. degree in 2018. Xinyu’s academic interests include Chinese legal history, comparative law and bureaucracy. Her J.S.D. dissertation focuses the development of supervisory agents in eighteenth-century China and France, aiming to examine how the trade-off between the pursuit of administrative efficiency and the principle-agent problem shaped the supervisory agent in premodern society.

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Pinchas Huberman

Pinchas Huberman

Pinchas Huberman is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, writing his dissertation in free speech theory. He is also a Resident Fellow with the Yale Information Society Project and a Doctoral Fellow with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Emilia Jocelyn-Holt

Emilia Jocelyn-Holt is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she completed her LL.M. degree in 2019 with the support of both Fulbright and Becas Chile scholarships. Emilia is a full-time research scholar and lecturer at Universidad de Santiago de Chile, where she has taught Philosophical Foundations of Law before coming to Yale. During 2016 and 2017, she also taught a course on Law and Literature at the Universidad de Chile Law Faculty. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of law and humanities, especially the relationship between law and literature as well as law and philosophy.

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Jiangfeng Li

Jiangfeng Li is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she received her LL.M. degree in 2015. She previously obtained her J.D. and J.M. degrees, with distinction, from Peking University School of Transnational law in China in 2012. Jiangfeng’s academic interests include international law, international arbitration, environmental law, and legal issues pertaining to China’s legal reform. She has published articles relating to China’s air pollution regulation, China’s financial regulation, and international treaties.

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Bin Ling

Bin Ling is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he earned his LL.M. degree in 2006. Before initially coming to New Haven, he obtained his LL.B. degree in 2000 and his Ph.D. degree in 2005 from Peking University Law School, where he has been a full professor and a doctorial supervisor since 2014. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School, Tilburg Law School, and the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii. Bin's academic interests lie mainly in legal theory (especially law and economics and sociology of law), constitutional history, and comparative law.

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Fernando Loayza Jordán

Fernando Loayza Jordán

Fernando Loayza Jordán is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he also obtained his LL.M. degree in 2020 and where he is currently serving as a Tutor in Law. Fernando has taught Economics and Law and Taxation at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the Universidad del Pacífico. He has also worked in the private sector as a tax lawyer, and for the Tax Justice Network as a researcher. His thesis dissertation explores the interaction between the political economy of economic constitutions and the limits of liberal democracy, and his research areas include Constitutional Law, Taxation, Law and Political Economy, Public Policy, and Law & Economics.

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Sandra Magalang

Sandra Magalang

Sandra Mae Tolentino Magalang is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she obtained her LL.M. degree in 2020. In 2020-2021, Sandra was a Fox Visiting Fellow at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Before coming to Yale, Sandra was a practicing lawyer specializing in litigation and arbitration, and worked on important constitutional litigation cases before the Philippine Supreme Court. She also taught constitutional law and administrative law at the University of the Philippines. Sandra's current research focuses on comparative constitutional law, international law, and legal history, particularly the intersection of imposed constitutionalism and U.S., Philippine, and Japanese constitutional development in the late 19th to early 20th century.

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YaaraMordechai

Ya’ara Mordecai

Ya’ara Mordecai is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she earned her LL.M. degree in 2023 as an E. David Fischman scholar. She also holds an LL.M. in public and international law, an LL.B., and a B.A. in the “Amirim” Interdisciplinary Honors Program for Outstanding Students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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María Gracia Naranjo-Ponce

María Gracia Naranjo-Ponce

María Gracia Naranjo Ponce is an Ecuadorian lawyer currently pursuing a J.S.D at Yale Law School, where she also obtained her LL.M. degree in 2022 as a Fulbright Scholar. Before coming to Yale, she was a practicing lawyer in the fields of tax law, private law, and dispute resolution, clerked at the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, and taught at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). She is currently a professor at USFQ. María Gracia’s academic interests focus on tax law, private law, and dispute resolution. Her J.S.D research explores the substance over form doctrine and its potential conflicts with due process.

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Rafael Nunes

Rafael Nunes

Rafael is a J.S.D. Candidate at Yale Law School (2019-) and an Information Society Project resident fellow at Yale Law School, researching issues of law and technology, information policy, and platform regulation. He was a guest researcher at the Social Science Research Center of Berlin (WZB) and a Yale Public Interest Fellow at Access Now (2020-21). He was a Fox Fellow at El Colegio de Mexico (2018-2019). He holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School (2018), a Master of Laws from the University of São Paulo (2015), and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Federal University of Maranhão (2013).

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Thomaz Pereira

Thomaz Pereira is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he served as Tutor in Law from 2012 to 2014. He is currently a Professor at FGV Direito Rio in Brazil and was a Visiting Professor at National Law University, Delhi, in India. Prior to coming to Yale, Thomaz worked as Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil, as Chief of Staff to the President of the Brazilian National Council of Justice, and as a full-time researcher at FGV Direito SP. His academic interests include the fields of constitutional law and theory, comparative law, legal and political history, legal and political theory, and civil procedure.

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Ana Beatriz Robalinho

Ana Beatriz Robalinho

Ana Beatriz Robalinho is a Brazilian lawyer currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School, where she also served as Tutor-in-Law for the 2021-2022 academic year. She earned her LL.M. from Yale in 2016, and later worked as a constitutional litigator and as Law Clerk to Justice Luís Roberto Barroso of the Supreme Court of Brazil. Before returning to Yale, she also taught courses on constitutional law at the University of Brasilia. Her academic interests include comparative constitutional law and constitutional history, and her J.S.D. dissertation focuses on the relationship between constitutional courts and the executive following transitions into democracy. 

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Katharina Isabel Schmidt

Katharina Isabel Schmidt is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School. Before coming to New Haven in 2012, she obtained law degrees in Germany and the United Kingdom. She is concurrently pursuing a Ph.D. in History at Princeton University.

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Omar Yousef Shehabi

Omar is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School. He is a generalist public international lawyer with particular interest in international dispute settlement, the law of international responsibility, the law of international organizations, international labor law, human rights, and international humanitarian law. His doctoral research explores strategies for overcoming resistance to compliance with fundamental norms in an increasingly illiberal world order. Omar is currently a legal officer with the United Nations Office of Administration of Justice. Previously, he was a legal officer with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and a member of the Palestinian negotiating team in permanent-status negotiations with Israel. He also taught international law and human rights at Birzeit University in Palestine and practiced labor law in the United States.

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Luciano Simonetti

Luciano Simonetti I.

Luciano Simonetti I. is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2023. He also holds an LL.B. from Universidad Católica de Chile, where he graduated with maximum distinction (summa cum laude). Before coming to Yale, Luciano worked as an adjunct professor at Universidad del Desarrollo Law School, where he taught Economic Regulation with co-professor John Henríquez Oyarzo.

Luciano's academic interests include comparative constitutional law, political and constitutional theory, legislation, and empirical legal studies. His J.S.D. thesis explores legal legitimacy from an empirical and comparative perspective.

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Carlo Vistan

Edgardo Carlo Lasam Vistan, II is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he also earned his LL.M. degree in 2017. His current research endeavors are in public international law, constitutional law, and the interplay of science, technology, and the law, and his doctoral study explores how international law could regulate cyber conflict and aims to develop a treaty-based regime towards this end. Since 2006, Carlo has been teaching public, private, and remedial law courses in the Angeles University Foundation and at U.P.

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Elazar Weiss

Elazar Weiss

Elazar Weiss is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he also earned his LL.M. degree in 2020. Elazar’s research focuses on the intersection between law, culture and language. His J.S.D dissertation examines metaphors and paradigms underlying US abortion jurisprudence and “culture wars” (Privacy vs. Destiny). Before coming to Yale, Elazar completed degrees in law (L.L.B.), philosophy and economics (B.A.) through The Lautman Interdisciplinary Program of Tel-Aviv University. In 2021, Elazar served as a Human Rights Fellow at Yale Law School’s Schell center. Visual documentation of his Socio-Political journey through the Holy Land is currently on exhibit at the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale.

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Jingjian Wu

Jingjian Wu is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he received his LL.M. degree in 2017. Prior to coming to Yale, he completed his LL.B. degree in 2014 and his first LL.M. degree in 2016 at Peking University, where he served as a member of the editorial board of the Peking University Law Review. Jingjian’s academic interests include legal history, the history of political thought, administrative law, constitutional law, and Chinese law. He has published several articles on legal history in China.

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Weilin Xiao

Weilin Xiao

Weilin Xiao is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School. During the 2019-2020 academic year, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, at the University of Tokyo, under the International Dissertation Research Fellowship awarded by the Yale MacMillan Center. In 2022-2023, he was a Fox International Fellow at Waseda University. Weilin's academic interests include family law, comparative law, and legal history, with a focus on the East Asian region.

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FAN Xiaolu

FAN Xiaolu

FAN Xiaolu is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she earned her LL.M. degree in 2022. Xiaolu’s areas of interest in legal scholarship include international law, international legal history, international environmental law, and critical theory. Her doctoral research at Yale focuses on the history of international environmental law from the 1970s to the 1990s. The project examines the involvement and influence of economic institutions on the development of international environmental law and how that reshaped the relationship between developed and developing countries.

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