Francisco J. Urbina

Associate Professor of Law

Office: 2156 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-6255
Email: furbinam@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Theresa Cadwell
CV: View

Francisco J. Urbina joined the Law School in December 2022. His primary work areas are human rights, constitutional theory, and jurisprudence.

He is the author of A Critique of Proportionality and Balancing (Cambridge University Press 2017) and the co-author of Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation (Cambridge University Press 2018). His work has been published or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Constitutional Commentary, the Law Quarterly Review, the American Journal of Jurisprudence, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law. His work has been cited at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (Shvidler v. Secretary of State for FCDO, dissent by Lord Leggatt), the European Court of Human Rights (S.J.P. and E.S. v. Sweden, dissenting opinion by Judge Serghides), the Supreme Court of Canada (R. v. Chouhan, concurrent reasons by Justice Rowe), the Court of Appeals of Ontario (Bracken v. Niagara Parks Police, and R. v. Sharma, dissenting opinion by Justice Miller) and the Australian Law Reform Commission (Traditional Rights and Freedoms—Encroachments by Commonwealth Laws).

Between 2019 and 2021, he served as a human rights advisor to the Mission of Chile to the Organization of American States. He has appeared before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He graduated summa cum laude from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (recipient of the Carlos Casanueva Prize). He holds a Master of Studies in Legal Research and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Oxford.

Professor Urbina is also a Faculty Fellow at the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Courses Taught

• Constitutional Law I (LAW60307)
• Introduction to International Human Rights Law (LAW70419)
• Jurisprudence (LAW70812)
• Regional Protection of Human Rights (LAW73421)
• Theories of Interpretation Seminar (LAW 73364)

Scholarship

Books

A Critique of Proportionality and Balancing (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation (Cambridge University Press, 2018) (co-authored with Richard Ekins, Maris Köpcke, Bradley Miller, Grégoire Webber, and Paul Yowell).

Recent Articles and Essays

Reasons for Interpretation, 124 Colum. L. Rev. 1661 (2024)

The Object of Interpretation, 114 Geo. L.J. (forthcoming 2026)

It Doesn’t Matter What “Interpretation” Is, 38 Const. Comment. 291 (2023) (Review Essay)

Meta-Interpretive Questions and the Aims of Theories of Interpretation: Beyond The Remedial Answer 105 B.U. L. Rev. 1457 (2025) (Response)

The Force of Separation of Powers, in The Cambridge Handbook on Separation of Powers (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) (book chapter)