J.S.D. Candidate Profiles

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.

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.

Santiago Carbajal is an Argentine J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2024. He holds an LL.B. (Hons) from the University of Buenos Aires, where he taught Analytical Jurisprudence, Professional Responsibility, and Administrative Law. Additionally, he served in the Judiciary of the City of Buenos Aires. Santiago’s academic interests include legal and moral philosophy and administrative law. He is currently working on the nature of reasonableness in the context of the review of authoritative administrative decisions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Ganty is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she serves as President of the Yale Law School European Law Association. She is also a Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve and a research affiliate at the Central European University Democracy Institute in Budapest. In 2013, she was called to the bar of Brussels. She defended her first doctoral dissertation at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in February 2019. Sarah’s scholarship aims to unveil how societal hierarchies and stratifications are maintained through law. Her primary academic interests include migrants' law in its broadest sense—encompassing refugee law, immigration law, and integration law—as well as citizenship, anti-discrimination law, human rights law, and legal theory. Sarah is particularly engaged in studying poverty and socioeconomic inequalities. With a strong background in EU law, she is also active in analyzing the EU legal system.

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.

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.

Samuel González Cataño is a Mexican lawyer currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School, where he also obtained his LL.M. in 2022. He has collaborated at Isonomía, a prestigious Mexican journal on law and philosophy, and served in several positions at the Mexican Judiciary and the General Consulate of Mexico in New York. Samuel’s research interests include comparative law in Latin America & the Global South, legal & judicial politics, and human rights & democracy.

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).

Shira Halbertal is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she also earned her LL.M. degree (2024). She holds an LL.B. and B.A. in the humanities from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Summa Cum Laude). Shira clerked for the Deputy Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court. She taught legal writing and research at Hebrew University and worked as a research assistant in the fields of administrative and constitutional law, as well as family law.

Shira’s research interests are philosophy of law, criminal law, constitutional law, and human rights. Her dissertation focuses on the nature of obligations and the nexus between obligations and human dignity.

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.

Yuping Lin is from China. She is a Tutor in Law and a doctoral candidate at Yale Law School (J.S.D. program) and Peking University Law School (Ph.D. in Law). She obtained her LL.M. degree in 2022 and started her J.S.D. in 2023. Also, she is a resident fellow at the Information Society Project and used to be a resident fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center, both intellectual centers at Yale Law School. She used to work as an Article Editor at the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.

Alexis Lujan is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he earned his LL.M. degree in 2024. Alexis’s research interests lie at the intersection of statutory interpretation, legal ethics, and international tax law. His dissertation focuses on the ethical standards and regulations that address the use of aggressive legal interpretations in designing or approving international tax planning strategies. Before coming to Yale, Alexis worked as a tax advisor and authored a book. He obtained his LL.B. from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), graduating summa cum laude. In 2024-2025, Alexis is a Fox Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

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.

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.

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.

Taís is a Brazilian JSD candidate at Yale Law School, where she also completed her LL.M. (2022) and served as Visiting Researcher (Fall 2023) and Fellow (Winter 2024). Taís holds LL.B. (2016) and M.A. (2020) degrees from FGV Law School of São Paulo (2016), where she is currently finishing her PhD. Taís’s research revolves around the relationship between antisubordination-based approaches to law, social transformation and constitutional law and theory. Her J.S.D. dissertation seeks to reflect on the normative underpinnings of Brazilian Transformative Constitutionalism from critical perspectives, such as feminist, critical race, queer, law and political economy, and social transformation theories.

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.

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.

Philipp Schlüter is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2023. Concurrently with his J.S.D. studies, Philipp is pursuing a post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) at the University of Freiburg, where he works as a lecturer (Akademischer Rat a.Z.). In his J.S.D. project, Philipp examines different contractual background orders (e.g., default rules, good faith, trade usages) and seeks to reconcile them with the concept of freedom of contract from a comparative law perspective.

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.

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.

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.

Sixtine Van Outryve is J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she also obtained her LL.M. degree as a BAEF fellow in 2018. Combining normative and empirical approaches, her J.S.D. explores how unions, as collective vehicles for workers to express their voice, could be democratized to both increase their legitimacy and strengthen democratic life at large. She also teaches political theory at Radboud Universiteit. In March 2024, she defended her Ph.D. at U.C.Louvain in Belgium, her home country, in which she developed a normative theory of communalist direct democracy and analyzed its practice by social movements through qualitative research methods.

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.

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.

Hernán Gómez Yuri is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where he obtained his LL.M. degree in 2024 as a Fulbright Scholar. Before coming to Yale, Hernán taught courses on legal theory at the Diego Portales University and the Catholic University Silva Henriquez. He was also a research assistant on a project for the Chilean National Research Fund (Fondecyt) about the rights of people with disabilities. Hernán’s research focuses on comparative public law and political theory. His dissertation explores the design and development of fourth-branch institutions (organismos constitucionales autónomos) across Latin American constitutions and their impact on the system of checks and balances.