Faculty and Staff
Paolo Carozza
Director
Professor of Law
Paolo Carozza’s expertise is in the areas of comparative law, human rights, and international law, and his extensive writings in these areas have been published in Europe and Latin America as well as in the United States. From 2006 to 2010 he was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and served as its President in 2008-09. At Notre Dame, he is the Director of the Law School’s J.S.D. program in international human rights law, and the Director of the Law School’s new Program on Law and Human Development. He is also a fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Professor Carozza earned both his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard, and pursued graduate studies at Cambridge University and at Harvard Law School as a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law. After law school, he served as a judicial clerk for the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia and worked as an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter.
Douglass Cassel
Notre Dame Presidential Fellow
Professor of Law
Douglass Cassel is a scholar, attorney and journalist specializing in international human rights, international criminal and international humanitarian law. Current or former president of two international organizations assisting justice reform in the Americas, he has been consultant on human rights to numerous non-governmental organizations as well as the United Nations, Organization of American States, United States Department of State and the Ford Foundation. He lectures worldwide and his articles are published internationally in English and Spanish. His commentaries on human rights are published in the Chicago Tribune and broadcast weekly on Chicago Public Radio.
Sean O’Brien
Assistant Director and Concurrent Assistant Professor of Law
Sean O’Brien joined the Center in 2005, bringing with him his experience in international and domestic human rights work. He holds three degrees from the University of Notre Dame, most recently graduating summa cum laude from the Center’s LL.M. program in 2002. His experience includes work with the Belfast law firm of Madden & Finucane before the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry, Northern Ireland and litigation with the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights. Immediately prior to his return to Notre Dame, he served as Chief Counsel for Immigration and Human Rights at the Center for Multicultural Human Services (CMHS) in Falls Church, VA, directing a legal services program for survivors of torture and war trauma.
Muthee Kiunga
Research Associate
Muthee Kiunga earned his bachelors degree in law from the University of Nairobi in 1998 and a masters degree in international human rights law from Notre Dame Law School in 2005. Muthee brings to the program his skills and experience from working for the United Nations in Sudan and Kenya. Muthee has previously worked as a lawyer on diverse human rights issues in the East Africa region including immigration and refugee rights, governance and rule of law, and human rights advocacy and litigation. He has also consulted for the UN and civil society organizations on human rights. His academic interests include international immigration law, transitional justice, the role of international human rights law in safeguarding individual human rights guarantees and the African Human Rights system.
Pier Paolo Pigozzi
Research Associate
Mr. Pigozzi earned his law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador and a masters degree in international human rights law from Notre Dame Law School in 2010. During his studies, he worked at the Human Rights Clinic of the Catholic University as Coordinator of the Section on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Before coming to Notre Dame, Mr. Pigozzi clerked for the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court, and worked with Colombian refugees in Ecuador at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and at the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has conducted several workshops and conferences on International Refugee Law, human rights, and Constitutional Law. Mr. Pigozzi has also lectured on the refugee definition within the Cartagena Declaration at Universidad San Francisco (Quito), on constitutional law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (Ibarra) and on International Law at Simón Bolívar Andean University (Quito).
Jody Klontz
Administrative Assistant
Ms. Klontz is at the core of administration of all aspects of the work of the CCHR, including budgeting, financial transactions and records, communications with applicants for degree programs and with admitted students, compliance with University requirements for privacy of personal data, and arranging conferences and events, among other responsibilities. Prior to joining the CCHR in February 2009, she worked for the Notre Dame Law School administration for more than seven years. She also has several years of experience working as a legal assistant in a small, local firm. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University.
Students in the LL.M. and J.S.D. programs have access to all the regular faculty and courses at the Law School, as described in detail in the Law School Bulletin of Information, as well as to the faculty and courses of other academic institutes and departments of the University. In addition to the Law School faculty highlighted on the Law School web site, the faculty of the University includes some outstanding professors who are well known for a particular specialty relevant to human rights.
