Paolo Carozza

Paolo Carozza is the director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. With expertise in comparative constitutional law, human rights, law and development, and international law, he focuses his research on Latin America, Western Europe, and international themes more broadly.

His current research revolves around the relationships between law, human rights, education, and integral human development. Formerly the director of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, he directed its doctoral program in international human rights law for a decade.

Widely published, Carozza’s most recent books include Italian Constitutional Justice in Global Context (with Vittoria Barsotti, Marta Cartabia, and Andrea Simoncini) (Oxford University Press, 2016), Comparative Legal Traditions (with Mary Ann Glendon and Colin B. Picker) (4th ed., West Academic Publishing, 2014), and Regional Protection of Human Rights (with Dinah L. Shelton) (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2013). His numerous articles, published in four languages, have focused primarily on foundational principles of human rights law, such has human dignity, democracy, and subsidiarity.

A member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2006–10), Carozza served as its president in 2008–09. In 2012, he received the Order of Merit of Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile’s highest state honor awarded to foreign citizens, in recognition of his service to the Inter-American human rights system.  He has served the Holy See in various capacities and was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 to be a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Carozza has been a visiting professor at universities in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, including as the John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School and twice as a Fulbright senior scholar. He holds an AB from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School, and was a postgraduate Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law at Harvard Law School.