Roberto Saba ’95 LL.M., ’11 J.S.D. Elected to Kettering Foundation Board

Roberto Saba ’95 LL.M., ’11 J.S.D., director of the Center for Graduate Studies at the Palermo University School of Law in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been elected as a member of the board of directors of the Kettering Foundation, a research foundation with offices in Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. He is the first person from outside the United States to be elected to the foundation’s board of directors.

“Roberto’s deep background in both law and public life throughout Latin America will contribute greatly to our research into citizenship and democracy,” said Kettering Foundation president David Mathews. “In addition, thanks to his experience, he will be able to bring valuable insights to bear on the foundation’s expanding research into the work of citizens outside the United States.”

Throughout his professional career, Saba has combined teaching with civic and civil rights activism in Argentina and in other Latin America countries. Between 1995 and 1998, he was executive director of the Citizen Power Foundation, created with the goal of encouraging citizen participation in the young Argentine democracy reestablished in his country after a bloody military dictatorship (1976-1983). Saba later cofounded and directed the Association for Civil Rights of which he was executive director between 2001 and 2009. Inspired by the American Civil Liberties Union, this group’s mission was to promote and defend civil rights in his country and in the region. 

Since 1995, Saba has taught human rights law and constitutional law both at Buenos Aires University and at Palermo University, where he served as dean of the law school between 2009 and 2016. 

Saba has published on a wide variety of subjects, including deliberative democracy, judicial review, constitutional theory, freedom of expression, freedom of information and, most recently, structural inequality.

He received his law degree from the University of Buenos Aires and earned both his LL.M and J.S.D degrees from Yale University Law School. His connection with the Kettering Foundation began in 1992, when he served as an international fellow at the foundation for a year. He has participated in numerous Kettering seminars and workshops in the ensuing 25 years.