Professor Contesse's research examines how international human rights law interacts with states and non-governmental actors, with a focus in Latin America.  He teaches international law, human rights law, transnational law, and U.S. criminal law.  Contesse is the founding Director of the Rutgers Center for Transnational Law.

Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, he was an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Center at Diego Portales Law School, and Board Member of Chile’s National Human Rights Institute. Contesse has been a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School’s Schell Center for International Human Rights, Visiting Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, Visiting Resource Professor at the University of Texas School of Law, and Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights at Fordham University School of Law. In 2021-2022, he will be a Visiting Professor at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, in France.

Contesse is a Managing Editor of AJIL Unbound, co-chair of the American Society of International Law–Latin America Interest Group, and serves on the Executive Committees of the International Law, International Human Rights, and Comparative Law Sections of the Association of American Law Schools.  He has litigated and acted as expert witness in cases before international bodies, on issues regarding sexual orientation, the use of anti-terrorist laws, freedom of expression, and the rights of indigenous peoples.  He has offered views on comparative law issues to courts in the United States.  

Professor Contesse received his LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Yale Law School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Senior Editor of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, and his Law and Social Sciences Degree from Diego Portales Law School.

Articles

The Rule of Advice in International Human Rights Law, 115 Am. J. Int'l L. __ (forthcoming 2021)

Judicial Interactions and Human Rights Contestations in Latin America, 12 J. Int'l Dispute Settlement __ (2021)

Settling Human Rights Violations, 60 Harv. Int'l L.J. 317 (2019) 

Resisting the Inter-American Human Rights System, 44 Yale J. Int'l L. 179 (2019)

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Inter-American Human Rights Law, 44 N.C. J. Int'l L. 353 (2019) (solicited)

The International Authority of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: A Critique of the Conventionality Control Doctrine, 22 Int'l J. Hum. Rts. 1168 (2018)

The Final Word? Constitutional Dialogue and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 15 Int’l J. Const. L. 414 (2017)

Contestation and Deference in the Inter-American Human Rights System, 79 Law & Contemp. Probs. 123 (2016)

Indigenous Peoples in Chile: The Quest to Become a Constitutional Entity, 55 Stud. L. Pol. & Soc. 19 (2011) 

Book Chapters & Essays

Exceptional Regulations for an Exceptional Moment: The Law and Politics of COVID-19 in Chile, 73 Adm. L. Rev. 121 (2021)

Derechos Humanos y Nueva Constitución, in La Hoja en Blanco: Claves para Conversar sobre una Nueva Constitución (Rocío Lorca, Pablo Marshall, Nicole Selamé & Matías Guiloff eds., 2020) (in Spanish)

Emergencia y Derecho Internacional, in La Ley de la Emergencia: Ensayos sobre el Derecho, la Excepción y la Pandemia (P. Contreras ed., 2020) (in Spanish)

Human Rights Law and Constitutional Democracies in Latin America: Interactions, Contestations and Engagement, in Critical Essays on Human Rights Criticism (András Sajó & Renáta Uitz eds., 2020)

Derechos Humanos y Nueva Constitución, in La Hoja en Blanco: Claves para Conversar sobre una Nueva Constitución (Rocío Lorca, Pablo Marshall, Nicole Selamé & Matías Guiloff eds., 2020) (in Spanish)

Proporcionalidad y Derechos Fundamentales, in Manual de Derechos Fundamentales: Teoría General (Pablo Contreras & Constanza Salgado eds., 2017) (in Spanish)

International Law and Domestic Adjudication, in The Latin American Casebook: Courts, Constitutions, and Rights (Juan F. Gonzalez-Bertomeu & Roberto Gargarella eds., 2016) (with Fernando Basch)

Norín Catrimán y Otros: Comentario a la Sentencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, in Anuario de Derecho Público (Javier Couso ed., 2015) (in Spanish)

Inter-American Constitutionalism: The Interaction between Human Rights and Progressive Constitutional Law in Latin America, in Law and Society in Latin America (Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito ed., 2015)

Shorter Works

Case of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta v. Peru, 113 Am. J. Int'l L. 568 (2019)

Conservative Governments and Latin America's Human Rights Landscape, 113 AJIL Unbound 375 (2019)

Introductory Note to "Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in Need of International Protection" (Inter-American Court of Human Rights), 56 Int'l Legal Materials 839 (2017)

Blog Posts

Inter-State Cases in Disguise under Inter-American Human Rights Law: Advisory Opinions as Inter-State Disputes, Völkerrechtsblog (Apr. 27, 2021)

COVID-19 Constitution-making in Chile, The International Association of Constitutional Law Blog (Nov. 16, 2020)

Responding to COVID-19 Without Public Trust, The Regulatory Review (June 2, 2020)

The Downfall of a Constitutional Court, Verfassungsblog (Apr. 28, 2020)

Chile's Constitutional Awakening, Open Global Rights (Apr. 13, 2020)

A Constitution Borne Out of Actual Bullets, Verfassungsblog (Nov. 10, 2019)

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Advisory Opinion on Gender Identity and Same-Sex Marriage, 22 ASIL Insights (July 26, 2018)

The Rise and Fall of a Constitutional Moment: Lessons from the Chilean Experiment and the Failure of Bachelet's Project, Int'l J. Const. L. Blog (Mar. 13, 2018) (with Sergio Verdugo)

Judicial Backlash in Inter-American Human Rights Law, Int'l J. Const. L. Blog (March 2, 2017)

Book Translation

El Liberalismo en su Lugar (Universidad Diego Portales, 2018). Spanish translation of Putting Liberalism in its Place, by Paul W. Kahn (Princeton University Press, 2005)

• CRIMINAL LAW
• HUMAN RIGHTS SEMINAR
• INT'L RIGHTS JOURNAL
• INTL MOOT COURT COMP
• INTRO TO INTRNT LAW

• Comparative Law
• Human Rights
• International Law (Public)
• Transnational Litigation