Professor of Law and Herbert Hannoch Scholar
Carlos Gonzalez
Rutgers Law School
415
S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice
123 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102
973-353-5065

Carlos Gonzalez practiced litigation and employment law at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe in San Francisco before joining Rutgers in 1997. His research interests include statutory interpretation, direct democracy, popular sovereignty, federalism, and methods for mediating conflict between legal norms. He was the senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and has a master’s degree in political science from Stanford University.

  • Biography
  • Courses Taught
  • Expertise
Biography

Professor González earned his B.A. in political science with high distinction from the University of Michigan, and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. After graduation from law school, he earned an M.A. in political science from Stanford University, and practiced litigation and employment law at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe in San Francisco. He joined the Rutgers faculty in 1997 and became a full professor in 2005.

Professor González’s current research interests include statutory interpretation, Article I legislative powers, federalism, and methods for mediating conflict between legal norms. His publications include “Trumps, Inversions, Balancing, Presumptions, Institution Prompting, and Interpretive Canons: New Ways for Adjudicating Conflicts Between Legal Norms” in the Santa Clara Review (2005), “Representing Structures Through Which We The People Ratify Constitutions: The Troubling Original Understanding of the Constitution’s Ratification Clauses” in the UC Davis Law Review (2005), and “Turning Unambiguous Statutory Materials into Ambiguous Statutes:  Ordering Principles, Avoidance, and Transparent Justification in Cases of Interpretive Choice” in the Duke Law Journal (2011). 

Courses Taught
  • CON LAW:PWRS OF PRES
  • CONST. LAW II
  • CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 3
  • Constitutional Law: Powers of the President
  • CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
  • LEGISLATION
  • TORTS
Expertise
  • Constitutional Law
  • First Amendment
  • Products Liability
  • Statutory Interpretation and Legislation
  • Torts