Jorge Barrera-Rojas
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law
Office: 2141 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-1512
Email: jbarrer2@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Debbie Sumption
CV: View
SSRN: View
Jorge Barrera-Rojas is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Rodes Jr. Fellow in Law and Religion at the Church, State & Society Program at Notre Dame Law School. He previously served as an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chile and the University San Sebastian, where he taught Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Constitutional Justice Clinic, and International Human Rights Law. He was also a non-resident Fellow at the Stanford Law School Constitutional Law Center between 2021 and 2023.
In 2023, professor Barrera-Rojas served as Chief Counsel and Constitutional Coordinator at the office of the Majority for the Chilean Constitutional Council, the body in charge of drafting and providing Chile's new constitution, and previously worked as a Comparative and Foreign Law Counsel at the U.S. Law Library of Congress.
Professor Barrera-Rojas has practiced law for several years, first in the Chilean Congress and from 2018 to 2022 as a senior associate and later a former partner at Bofill Mir Abogados in Chile. He has been the lead attorney in several landmark cases before the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal. They include the ruling establishing that the free-tuition program for college students was unconstitutional because it discriminated against low-income students who attended private universities instead of public institutions, the ruling that granted the exercise of conscientious objection for Catholic hospitals that receive public funds, and the decision delivered in June 2021, where the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal prioritized parents' rights to educate their children declaring mandatory sexual education unconstitutional.
His publications include "Parents v. Government: The Constitutional Challenge Between the Principle of Progressive Autonomy of Children and Parents' Educational Rights in Chile," 37 Notre Dame J. L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 445 (2023); "Religious Persecution and Erosion of Religious Freedom in Latin America" with Ana María Celis, in 97 Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection, 207 (2022), "Educational Adequacy: Balancing the Right to Education, Parents' Rights and Educational Freedoms Under the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights." in 55 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. ___, forthcoming, Summer 2023), and "Right to Education and Academic Freedom: Evolution of the Chilean Constitutional Tradition Before a New Constitution" with Prof. Miguel Angel Fernández, Chilean Association of Constitutional Law – in the book "Constitutional Transition: The Way to a New Constitution" Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia, Spain, 2021. (Spanish), among others.
Professor Barrera-Rojas holds an LL.B. from Universidad de Chile (2011), an LL.M. from UCLA School of Law (2017), and he is a J.S.D. candidate at Notre Dame Law School and a Ph.D. in Law candidate at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne.
Scholarship
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
American Law Journals:
“Parents v. Government: The Constitutional Challenge Between the Principle of Progressive Autonomy of Children and Parents' Educational Rights in Chile," 37 Notre Dame J. L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 445 (2023).
“Educational Adequacy: Balancing the Right to Education, Parents’ Rights and Educational Freedoms Under the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.” (Accepted for publication in 55 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. ___, forthcoming, Spring 2023).
"Religious Persecution and Erosion of Religious Freedom in Latin America" with Ana María Celis, in 97 Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection, 207 (2022)
Work in Progress:
When the designer is badly designed: Why Chile Constituent Process Failed? (Article in progress)
Religious Freedom and Education Rights in Latin America: The Ban of Faith-Based Teachers' Colleges in Bolivia (Article in progress)
Books:
Election Spending Handbook 2013, Editorial EFJG, Santiago, Chile, 2013, 66 (Editor) (Spanish)
Municipal Election Spending Handbook, Editorial EFJG, Santiago, Chile, 2012, 99 (Editor) (Spanish)
Book Chapters:
Judicial Review over the Administration in Matters of Public Policies: The Case of Compulsory Vaccination” with Jaime Ayala, in the book “Highlighted Judicial Decisions 2021”, Libertad y Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile, 2022 (Spanish)
"Right to Education and Academic Freedom: Evolution of the Chilean Constitutional Tradition Before a New Constitution" with Prof. Miguel Angel Fernández, Chilean Association of Constitutional Law – in the book "Constitutional Transition: The Way to a New Constitution" Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia, Spain, 2021. (Spanish)
"The Free Tuition under Chilean Law: A right of students and not a benefit for the Higher Education Institutions," in the book “Chilean Jurisprudence Yearbook 2019”, Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia, Spain, 2021. (Spanish)
“Subsidiarity in the Concertación coalition Presidential agenda” with Guillermo Ramirez, in the book “Subsidiarity in Chile: Justice and Freedom”, Editorial EFJG, Santiago, Chile. (Spanish)
“State comptroller: A blow to universities’ autonomy”, in the book “Ideas and Proposals to Chile 2014-2015”, Editorial EFJG, Santiago, Chile, 2015. (Spanish)
“¿What is going on the educational reform process?”, in the book “Ideas and Proposals to Chile 2014- 2015”, Editorial EFJG, Santiago, Chile, 2015. (Spanish)
Periodic Publications
Judicial Decisions Newsletter, Editorial Tirant Lo Blanch. In charge of the Constitutional and Administrative Law section, since 2020 until today. (Spanish)
Selected Expert Reports and Amicus Brief Delivered:
Amicus Curiae submitted to the Constitutional Court of Colombia, along with Stephanie Barclay, Diane Desierto, Nicole Garnett, Rick Garnett, and John Meiser, on behalf of the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic, in the Tutela case Natalia Jaramillo Sandoval et al. vs. Universidad Nacional of Colombia, a religious discrimination case in the educational context. April 2023 (Spanish and English)
Amicus Curiae submitted to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, in the Impeachment process against the President Guillermo Lasso Mendoza. March, 2023. (Spanish)
"On Trade Unions as Intermediate Groups and the Essential Core of Trade Union Autonomy in accordance with the Constitution", Chilean Constitutional Tribunal, 2022 (cited by the Constitutional Tribunal in the decision Rol No 11228-21) (Spanish)
Constitutionality of the requirement to transform K-12 schools into "multi-gender" institutions, Bulletin 11.850-04, Senate Education Committee, CHILE, Valparaiso, 2018. (Spanish)
Constitutionality of the extension of the free-tuition policy to community colleges' students, Bulletin 11.687-04, Senate Education Committee, CHILE, Valparaiso, 2018. (Spanish)
SELECTED TALK & PRESENTATIONS
“Civil Law Protections for Educational Freedoms under the International Human Rights Law” at the Congress “Catholic Schools and Religious Liberty: A Global Perspective”, Notre Dame Law School and Australian Catholic University, Rome, 2022.
“Why Chilean Constituent Process Failed?” Stanford Constitutional Law Center, Undergraduate Fellows lecture, Stanford (remote), 2022.
"Chilean New Constitution: the right to education and its harmonization with religious and educational freedoms from the Comparative Law perspective", LI Public Law Congress, Chile (remote), 2022. (Spanish)
“Analysis of the Pavez v. Chile decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights”, University Andres Bello, Chile (remote), 2022. (Spanish)
“Women’s rights as Human Rights: An Overview of Judicial Reforms in Chile: An attempt towards making judiciary more gender diverse”, Global Institute of Law, Pakistan (remote), 2022.
"Religious Persecution and Erosion of Religious Freedom in Latin America", Notre Dame Law Review Symposium, South Bend, 2022.
“Legality” Lecture about supremacy of the law; compliance with the law; law-making powers and procedures; exceptions in emergency situations; duty to implement the law. USAID Paraguay Rule of Law and Culture of Integrity (ROLCI) Program, Paraguay (remote), 2021.
“Rule of Law and Democracy”. Lecture about the relationship to electoral processes; the common good; rights and liberties; and political accountability. USAID Paraguay Rule of Law and Culture of Integrity (ROLCI) Program, Paraguay (remote), 2021.
“Considerations over the new k-12 schools’ regulations under the lens of Administrative Law”, XLIX Public Law Congress, CHILE, Santiago, 2019. (Spanish)
"The new k-12 public school system: Constitutional and Administrative Law Aspects” 3° Congress of Municipal Public Law, CHILE, Santiago, 2019. (Spanish)