S.J.D. Student Profiles
The S.J.D. program at Georgetown Law allows outstanding students from around the world to engage in original and diverse academic scholarship. Students are supervised by Georgetown faculty who are among the leading scholars in their fields.
Rafi Reznik
Country
Israel
Areas of Study
Criminal Law; Violence/Nonviolence; Law, Culture & the Humanities
Rafi’s scholarly passion lies in the nexus between public law and the Humanities. In his SJD project, tentatively titled “The Liberal Self in Self-Defense,” Rafi explores the ways in which developments in self-defense doctrines – in criminal, constitutional and international law – reflect, and in turn shape the meaning of liberalism today.
Currently, he is studying the link between self-defense and social contract theory as construed by Second Amendment jurisprudence (working title: “Hobbes v. Heller”).
Luisa Ferreira Peralta
Country
Colombia
Areas of Study
Human Rights; Electoral and Participatory Processes; Environmental law and Climate Change Adaptation
Luisa’s scholarly interests lie at the intersection of human rights and the environment. Her dissertation is entitled “A Study of Bogotá’s Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation Program: The Protection of Cultural Heritage and Participation Rights of Internally Displaced People in Columbia.”
Following her graduation from Stanford, Luisa was selected for a Stanford Human Rights Center (HRC) Fellowship for postgraduate work at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Jomana Qaddour
Country
United States
Areas of Study
Comparative Constitutional Law
Jomana is writing about ethno-sectarian political identities and their impact on constitutional frameworks in Syria, Iraq, and Bosnia. She serves on the Syrian Constitutional Committee, appointed by the United Nations Special Envoy Geir Pedersen to serve on the Civil Society Group. She is currently the head of the Syria portfolio at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center. Until July 2018, she was a Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom where she covered Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey. She also served as a Senior Research Assistant and Publications Manager for the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Silvia Serrano Guzmán
Country
Colombia
Areas of Study
International Human Rights Law, Comparative Anti-Discrimination Law
Silvia is simultaneously working on her S.J.D., tentatively entitled “Challenges of Interpretation and Evidence in International Litigation and Adjudication of Equality and Non-Discriminatory Cases,” while serving as Associate Director of the Healthy Families Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown.
Before joining the O’Neill Institute, she carried out different responsibilities as an attorney at the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Suhong Yang
Country
People’s Republic of China
Areas of Study
Public International Law; International Criminal Law; Human Rights Law
Suhong’s expansive academic interests and expertise include public international law, international criminal law, international courts and tribunals, human rights law, transitional justice, and Chinese approaches to international law.
Her proposed doctoral dissertation, “Normative and Sociological Legitimacy of Hybrid Courts: A Comparative Examination of Their Origins, Persons, Procedures, and Outcomes,” spans these many fields. In addition to her academic degrees, Suhong has also studied in Oxford, Kathmandu, and Taipei.
Ju-Ching Huang
Country
Taiwan
Areas of Study
Climate Change Adaptation; Land-Use and Planning; Administrative Law
Ju-Ching’s research explores the nexus between land-use and climate change adaptation. She is interested in how land-use decision-making models evolve through time under an era of climate change.
Her particular interest is in the Asia-Pacific region, and her dissertation will look at land-use decision-making processes to build resilience in the region’s coastal cities. As an islander growing up in Taiwan, her love for the land, coast, and ocean is the driving force for her research and career path.
Chiara Pappalardo
Country
Italy
Areas of Study
Energy Law; Environmental Law; Climate Change
Chiara’s research project seeks to explore the role of local and indigenous knowledge in advancing sustainable energy and water conservation goals and improving decision-making and management synergies between these two key areas of climate adaptation and mitigation. Her research interests also include regulatory integration and harmonization challenges arising from global decarbonization efforts.
Chiara has been assisting the Georgetown Climate Center with state and federal clean transportation initiatives. She co-founded and is a board member of the Georgetown Energy Law Group.
Mario R. Osorio Hernandez
Country
Colombia
Areas of Study
International Economic Law, Normative Jurisprudence
Mario’s doctoral research focuses on the relationship between economics and international law. It aims to critically trace the course of economic and legal knowledge in challenging the conventional wisdom that holds that the forms of international economic cooperation prevailing today are scientifically and objectively grounded.
Mario’s dissertation explores this theme in the fields of antitrust, trade, tax, and foreign investment. His dissertation is tentatively titled: “Is International Economic Law Economic?”
Almudena Azcárate Ortega
Country
Spain
Areas of Study
Outer-space Law; National Security Law; International Humanitarian Law
Almudena’s scholarly interest lies in the intersection between outer space law and security & defense.
In her S.J.D. project, she explores the role that dual-use space technology —assets useful for both military and civil & commercial purposes— plays in transforming outer space into a weaponized domain, focusing on the legal implications this has for the different actors in space and with the goal of preventing space from becoming a theater of conflict.
Eden Lapidor
Country
Israel
Areas of Study
International Humanitarian Law; International Self-defense Law; Counterterrorism; Just War Theory
Eden’s research project seeks to examine the way states interpret the laws regulating war when they fight against rogue actors (both state and non-state) who disrespect and constantly violate international law. In her project, Eden seeks to find a suitable construction of the laws to achieve an appropriate balance between the two aspects embodied in the laws of war – promoting state interest and humanitarian concerns.
Taysir Awad
Country
Palestine
Areas of Study
Copyright Law; International Intellectual Property; Comparative Law
Taysir’s scholarly interests include Intellectual Property Law, International Intellectual Property Law, Copyright Law, Trademark Law, Patent Law, Comparative Law, and Constitutional Law regarding the First Amendment.
His dissertation project, “Copyright Fair Use in Palestine: To Emulate, or not to Emulate?,” seeks to discuss how lower courts in the United States have erroneously seized on a single observation on fair use in the Supreme Court decision, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose. That decision generated the necessity of “transformativeness”, neglecting the distinctive character of a parody, and applied an overly broad interpretation effectively eradicating a copyright holder’s right to derivative works.
Christian González Chacón
Country
Guatemala
Areas of Study
Jurisprudence; Philosophy; International Human Rights Law
Christian’s research project, tentatively entitled “Are Human Rights Always Right? Assessing the Limits of Human Rights Law to Indigenous Justice Systems,” seeks to explore the dilemma of balancing the universality of rights vs. pluralism in the interaction of international human rights with indigenous justice systems. It will examine several tensions between indigenous justice systems and international human rights law, in issues such as guarantees of due process and women’s rights, to determine when should human rights prevail over indigenous justice systems and when they should accommodate indigenous perspectives.
View Christian’s full profile.
Neil Modi
Country
India
Areas of Study
Comparative Constitutional Law; Constitutional Theory; Human Rights Law
Neil’s scholarly interests traverse, broadly- Indian constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, and human rights law.
Prior to joining the program, Neil assisted two judges at the Bombay High Court, and thereafter a judge at the Supreme Court of India for an extended period of time.
Sebastian Luengo-Troncoso
Country
Chile
Areas of Study
Energy Law, Environmental Law, Comparative Law
Sebastian is a lawyer (J.D.) and LL.M. in Regulatory Law from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, who came to Georgetown Law to obtain his Environmental and Energy Law LL.M. as an UNEP-Georgetown Global Environment and Sustainability Fellow in 2021.
Sebastian practiced with two Chilean private law firms specialized on environmental law, where he litigated before environmental courts, higher courts, and advised many environmental impact assessment procedures.
Yael Naggan
Country
Israel
Area of Study
Public international law
Yael’s research focuses on the concept of “effective control” in public international law. As part of her S.J.D. project, she is conducting a systematic examination of “effective control” across the different branches of international law, analyzing its various components therein, with a view to exploring how effective control came to be the multi-faceted and prevalent concept that it has become.
Rodrigue Ntungu
Country
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Areas of Study
International Investment Law, Comparative Law, OHADA Law (Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa).
His dissertation topic is “The Right of the State to Regulate under the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.” A new African Continental Free Trade Area agreement went into effect on May 30, 2019, proposing an Investment Protocol, which would incorporate aspects of the Draft Pan-African Investment Code. This project raises legal concerns in many ways.
Smitha Krishna Prasad
Country
India
Areas of Study
Technology law and policy, privacy and surveillance law, digital governance
Smitha is an SJD Candidate at Georgetown Law and Fritz Family Fellow with Georgetown’s Tech & Society Program. Smitha’s primary research interests focus on issues around digital governance, privacy, data protection and surveillance. She also works on questions of emerging technology and law, and the expansion of tech regulation. Her SJD project focuses on regulatory frameworks applicable in the context of growing efforts made by international organizations and multinational corporations to promote digitization of government services (particularly in Global South countries).
Morial Shah
Country
Pakistan
Areas of Study
Law and Economics; Law and Development; Law and Technology; Comparative Corporate and Contract Law.
Morial Shah is an SJD Candidate at Georgetown Law, and Assistant Professor of Law at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. She studies and teaches business law, corporate law, international economic law, comparative law, and governance. Her dissertation examines the link between autonomy and Special Economic Zones’ (SEZs) success. It draws on ideas from law and economics, law and development, comparative law, international economic law, law and technology, business and commercial law, corporate law, law and anthropology, and related fields.