- About
About USC Gould
USC Gould is a top-ranked law school with a 120-year history and reputation for academic excellence. We are located on the beautiful 228-acre USC University Park Campus, just south of downtown Los Angeles.
- Academics
Academics
Learn about our interdisciplinary curriculum, experiential learning opportunities and specialized areas.
Student Quick Links:
- Admissions
Admissions
USC Gould helps prepare you for a stellar legal career. You can pursue a JD degree, one of our numerous graduate and international offerings, or an online degree or certificate.
- Students
Students
Participate in an unparalleled learning experience with diversity of people and thought. Get involved in the law school community and participate in activities that enhance your studies.
Student Quick Links:
- Careers
Careers
We work closely with students, graduates and employers to support successful career goals and outcomes. Our overall placement rate is consistently strong, with 94 percent of our JD class employed within 10 months after graduation.
- Faculty
Faculty
Our faculty is distinguished for its scholarship, as well as for its commitment to teaching. Our 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio creates an intimate and collegial learning environment.
- Alumni and Giving
- Admissions

Marcela Prieto
USC Gould School of Law
- FACULTY DIRECTORY
- LECTURERS IN LAW DIRECTORY
- EXPERTS DIRECTORY
- FACULTY IN THE NEWS
- SCHOLARSHIP AND PUBLICATIONS
- DISTINCTIONS AND AWARDS
- + CENTERS AND INITIATIVES
- CENTER FOR LAW AND PHILOSOPHY (CLP)
- CENTER FOR LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE (CLASS)
- CENTER FOR LAW, HISTORY AND CULTURE (CLHC)
- CENTER FOR TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND BUSINESS (CTLB)
- INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM INSTITUTE (IRI)
- PACIFIC CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS
- SAKS INSTITUTE FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW, POLICY, AND ETHICS
- + WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES

Assistant Professor of Law
699 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089-0074 USA
Last Updated: February 14, 2022
Marcela Prieto Rudolphy is an assistant professor of law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law. Her research areas include international law, the international laws of armed conflict, and political, moral and legal philosophy. She teaches public international law, criminal law and criminal procedure.
Prieto graduated summa cum laude from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2015, she graduated from the LLM program at New York University, where she was an Arthur T. Vanderbilt Scholar and part of the Transitional Justice Leadership program. In 2020, she obtained her JSD degree from New York University.
Her dissertation, entitled "The Laws of War: The Fragility in Regulating Killing," won the 2021 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award in Social Sciences, and a revised version, entitled "The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder," is under contract with Oxford University Press.
From 2012-2014, Prieto worked at the Chilean Ministry of Interior (Human Rights Program) prosecuting crimes against humanity committed during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.
She is co-editor in chief of the Spanish issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law.
Works in Progress
- "The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder"
- "A World Without Forfeiture"
- "The Questions of Dignity," in Canons of Global Constitutional Law (Sujit Choudhry, Michaela Hailbronner & Mattias Kumm, eds.).
- "Transitional Justice in the 21st Century: Its History, Challenges, and Effectiveness" (with David Tolbert), in Oxford Handbook of Atrocity (Barbora Hola, Hollie Nyseth Brehm & Maartje Weerdesteijn eds.).
Publications
- "How Political Narratives Affect the Self-enforcing Nature of Interim Constitutions" (with Sergio Verdugo), 13 Hague Journal on the Rule of Law (2021). - (PDF)
- "Right-wing Populism, the Reasonable, and the Limits of Ideal Theory: A Reply to Gila Stopler," 19 International Journal of Constitutional Law (2021). - (www)
- "The Dual Aversion of Chile’s Constitution-Making Process" (with Sergio Verdugo), 19 International Journal of Constitutional Law (2021). - (www)
- "Gender in Academic Publishing" (with Gráinne de Búrca & Michaela Hailbronner), 17 International Journal of Constitutional Law (2020). - (www)
- "Populist Governments and International Law: A Reply to Heike Krieger," 30 European Journal of International Law 997 (2019). - (www)
- "Dignidad Animal y Dignidad Humana (Animal Dignity and Human Dignity)," in Derecho Animal: Teoría y Práctica (Javier Gallego Saade & María José Chible Villadangos eds., 2018).
Other Publications
- "A Feminist Rethinking of the Chilean Constitution?" International Constitutional Law Blog, November 5, 2020. - (www)
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2022
Re: Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo was interviewed about how immigration shortfalls, like soaring housing prices, are fueling California’s population drop. “A whole assortment of the service sector area has been tremendously affected by a lack of immigrant labor that we haven’t really seen and is just really unprecedented,” she said. “Immigrant labor has been a huge part of the long-term home care sector, and a decline in the population in California has had a significant effect.”
RECENT SCHOLARSHIP
Ariela Gross
March, 2022
“Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana,” Centre International de Recherches sur les Esclavages at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.
Camille Gear Rich
March, 2022
“No More Boxes to Check: Imagining The Anti-Racist Law Firm,” NALP Annual Education Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Thomas D. Lyon
March, 2022
“Disclosure Among Child Abuse Victims” (with K. London and M. Eisen), Fourth Zoom Psychology and Law Symposium: Children in Legal Settings, Maastrict University, Maastricht, Netherlands.