James Cavallaro

Clinical Professor of Law

Executive Director, Human Rights Program

Research Interests

• Human Rights Practice, Civil Society and Social Movements
• International Human Rights Litigation
• International Litigation to Promote Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
• Public Opinion and Human Rights
• Social Conflict, Rights Abuse, and Defense in Latin America

Subject Areas for Accepting Press Inquiries

• Human Rights Issues in Latin America
• Inter-American Human Rights System
• International Human Rights Law and Practice
• The Human Rights Movement

Education

• Harvard College A.B. 1984, Government
• Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley) J.D. 1992

Appointments

• Associate Director, Human Rights Program, 2002-04
• Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer on Law, 2003-05
• Clinical Director, Human Rights Program, 2004
• Clinical Professor of Law, 2005
• Executive Director, Human Rights Program, 2007

Practice Information

After graduation from Harvard College in 1984, Cavallaro spent several years working with Central American refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border and with rights groups in Chile challenging abuses by the Pinochet government. He studied at Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley School of Law), where he served on the California Law Review and was graduated with Order of the Coif Honors. Cavallaro clerked for the Hon. Dolores K. Sloviter, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1993-1994). In 1994, he opened a joint office for Human Rights Watch and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in Rio de Janeiro, and served as director of the office, overseeing research, reporting and litigation against Brazil before the Inter-American system's human rights bodies. In 1999, he founded the Global Justice Center, now a leading Brazilian human Rights NGO, which he directed until arriving at HLS in 2002.

Representative Publications

• Cavallaro, James & Stephanie Brewer. "Reevaluating Regional Human Rights Litigation in the Twenty-First Century: the Case of the Inter-American Court," 102 American Journal of International Law 768 (2008).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James. "Looking Backward to Address the Future?: Transitional Justice, Rising Crime and Nation-Building," 60 Maine Law Review 462 (2008).
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• Cavallaro, James & Stephanie Brewer. "Never Again?: The Legacy of the Argentine and Chilean Dictatorships for the Global Human Rights Regime," 39(2) Journal of Interdisciplinary History 233 (2008).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James & Stephanie Brewer. "The Virtue of Following: The Role of Inter-American Litigation in Campaigns for Social Justice," 8 SUR - International Journal on Human Rights 85 (2008).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James & Emily J. Schaffer. "Rejoinder: Justice Before Justiciability: Inter-American Litigation and Social Change," 39 N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics 345 (2006).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James & Emily J. Schaffer. "Less as More: Rethinking Supranational Litigation of Economic and Social Rights in the Americas," 56 Hastings Law Journal 217 (2004).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James. Crime, Public Order and Human Rights (Versoix, Switzerland, International Council on Human Rights Policy 2003).
  Full text: WWW
  
• Cavallaro, James. Police Brutality in Urban Brazil (New York, Human Rights Watch 1997).
  Full text: WWW; || AMAZON (Purchase)
  

Bibliography

View bibliography