David Baluarte

Practitioner-in-Residence, International Human Rights Law Clinic

Office: Room 446A
 Phone: 202-274-4389
E-mail: vCard


David Baluarte is a Practitioner-in-Residence in the International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC). David, an alumnus of WCL (’05), came to the IHRLC in 2009 from the Immigration Unit of the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before that, David was a staff attorney at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), an organization specializing in litigation and advocacy before the Inter-American Human Rights System. David recently acted as the lead researcher on a project with the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) on the implementation of the decisions of human rights tribunals, which resulted in the publication of From Judgment to Justice, and he has more recently completed a study for OSJI and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Statelessness in the United States.



Areas of Specialization

  • Immigration Law
  • International Human Rights

Degrees & Universities

  • J.D., American University Washington College of Law 2005
  • B.A., Brown University

  • Selected Publications

    • David Baluarte, Strategizing for Compliance: The Evolution of a Compliance Phase of Inter-American Court Litigation and the Strategic Imperative for Victims’ Representatives, __ Am. U. Intl. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2012).
    • David Baluarte & Christian De Vos, Implementation of Judgments: Making International and Regional Litigation Meaningful, 6 No. 2 Interights Bull. (Winter 2010).
    • David Baluarte C., Detention at Guantanamo Bay and the Creation of a New Brand of Statelessness, 3 Equal Rights Rev. (2009).
    • David Baluarte C., Challenging Mandatory Deportation Before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: The Hope of Smith and Armendariz vs. United States, 12 Bender’s Immig. Bull. (2007).
    • David Baluarte C., Inter-American Justice comes to the Dominican Republic: An Island Shakes as Human Rights and Sovereignty Clash, 13 Am. U. Hum. Rights Br. 25 (Winter 2006).
    • David Baluarte C., Yean y Bosico v. Dominican Republic, 3 Hous. & ESC Rights L. Q. 7 (July 2006).