Marcela Prieto
USC Gould School of Law

Marcela Prieto Rudolphy is an associate 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

• "A World without Forfeiture" (in progress, final draft.)
• "War and Coercion" (in progress)
• "The Questions of Dignity" in Canons of Global Constitutional Law (Sujit Choudhry, Michaela Hailbronner & Mattias Kumm eds., forthcoming). (Invited book chapter.)
• "Engendering the Legal Academy." Co-authored with Gráinne de Búrca and Rosalind Dixon.
• Constitutional Heroines, or Constitutional Villains? The Role of Right-Wing Women in Chilean Authoritarian Constitutionalism, in Constitutional Heroines. Female Chief Justices and Constitutional Court Presidents in Comparative Perspective (Erin Delaney and Rosalind Dixon, eds., Elgar, forthcoming). Co-authored with Marianne González.

Publications

• The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder (forthcoming, 2023, Oxford University Press.) - (www)
• Who Is at War? On the Question of Co-belligerency, Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (forthcoming, 2023). 
• Populism’s Antagonism to International Law: Lessons from Latin America, AJIL UNBOUND 116 (2022): 346–51 - (www)
• Between Predictability and Perplexity, 20 International Journal of Constitutional Law (2022) - (www)
• Transitional Justice in the 21st Century: Its History, Challenges, and Effectiveness, in OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ATROCITY (Barbora Hola, Hollie Nyseth Brehm & Maartje Weerdesteijn eds., 2022). Co-authored with David Tolbert. - (www)
• "Populist Governments and International Law: A Reply to Heike Krieger," 30 European Journal of International Law 997 (2019). - (www)
• "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)
• "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

LLM Guide
June 5, 2023
Re: USC Gould School of Law

Law schools have been adapting to the increase in technological advancements, especially with the increased need for attorneys with the creation of AI. “Attorneys work on the front end, conducting threat assessments to ensure that their clients’ systems and data are protected, and on the back end, to navigate any legal issues that may arise as a result of the attacks," Gruzas said.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robin Craig
April, 2023

"Fish, Whales, and a Blue Ethics for the Anthropocene: How Do We Think About the Last Wild Food in the Twenty-First Century?," 95:6 Southern California Law Review 1307-1343 (April 2023).

Robin Craig
April, 2023

"California Exceptionalism in the Colorado River: A Brief History and Implications for the Future."

Robin Craig
April, 2023

"Toward a Global Sustainable Development Agenda Built on Resilience" (with Murray W. Scown, Craig R. Allen, Lance Gunderson, David G. Angeler, Jorge H. Garcia, & Ahjond Garmestani), Global Sustainability (online publication April 2023).