Alvaro Santos is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas (CAROLA) at Georgetown Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of international trade, economic development, transnational labor law and drug policy. In 2018, he served as Deputy Chief Negotiator of the USMCA Agreement for the newly elected government of Mexico.

Professor Santos is co-editor of the books World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization (2019), Law and the New Developmental State: The Brazilian Experience in Latin America (2013) and The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal (2006). He is also the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, the Law and Development Review, and the Latin American Journal of International Trade Law.

He served as Co-Director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) in London in 2014-15. He regularly teaches at Georgetown’s Global Trade Academy and Harvard’s Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) and has also taught at the University of Texas, Tufts University, Melbourne Law School, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), and the University of Turin. He received an LL.B. with high honors from Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México (UNAM) and an LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School.

Scholarship

Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals

Alvaro Santos, International Investment Law in the Shadow of Populism: Between Redomestication and Liberalism Re‐Embedded, 11 Pol. & Governance 203-213 (2023). [WWW] [Gtown Law] [SSRN]
Alvaro Santos, 117 Am. J. Int’l L. 756-765 (2023)(reviewing Anthea Roberts & Nicolas Lamp, Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters (2021)). [W]

Selected Contributions to Other Publications

Daniel Rangel, Lori Wallach, Ladan Mehranvar, Alvaro Santos & Mario Osorio, Turning the Tide: How to Harness the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity to Deliver an ISDS-Free Americas (Columbia Ctr. on Sustainable Investment, Oct. 2023). [WWW] [SSRN]
Alvaro Santos, Effective and Reciprocal Labor Enforcement Should Be a Priority for an Inclusive USMCA and North America (Wilson Ctr., June 2022).
[WWW]
Alvaro Santos & Christopher Wilson, U.S.-Mexico Forum 2025: Trade, Economy, and Work: A Shared Agenda for a Stronger Economic Future (Ctr. for U.S.-Mexican Studs., U.C. San Diego, 2021).
[WWW] [Gtown Law] [SSRN]