José Jans Carretero Pardo
PhD Student
Political Science
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About
PhD Student in Political Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) under a Fulbright Scholarship, with a track in "Comparative Politics" and "Political Theory". His career bridges advocacy and research on: Civil Rights, Courts, Transitions, and Social Movements.
Previously, he served as Lead Counsel before the Ad Hoc Tribunal at Colombia, Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), and has worked with Colombian and international NGOs advocating for civil rights, and documenting war crimes before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Supreme and Constitutional Court of Colombia. These collaborative efforts led to the opening of significant cases on extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and crimes against humanity (i.e., Cases 3, 8, and 9), and the submission of over 30 legal opinions and lawsuits granted by landmark rulings of high courts.
José Jans holds a JD and LLM equivalent from the University of Los Andes (Colombia).
His studies and research have been supported by multiple awards and fellowships, including the “Leading Change” program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS), the “Drug Policy Program” at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE, Mexico), the Open Society “Fellowship in Rights and Governance” at the Central European University (CEU, Hungary), among others.
Service to Community
He has served as a community organizer in social movements and political initiatives that promote peacebuilding, such as the Cañamomo indigenous peoples’ advocacy network and the Leading, Change, Network (LCS).
Research Currently in Progress
His research focuses on the intersections of public interest litigation, social movements, and judicial reform of the criminal and constitutional justice systems. Specifically, he has delved into the study of the state accountability mechanisms (like courts, truth commissions) in contexts of transition from authoritarian rule and/or armed conflict in Latin America (Colombia, Mexico, Central America). He has documented how the rules, practices, and discourses on justice have been shaped by the revolving interaction between international organizations, courts, policymakers, and advocacy networks. These efforts aimed to critically point out the resulting outcomes on legal designs from both the public opinion struggle and institutional pathways.
He has co-authored publications and policy reports on civil rights, constitutional law, and international human rights standards, implementing an action-research participatory approach and a diverse range of research tools (Archives work, Macro-historical studies, Discourse analysis, Ethnographic fieldwork). In addition, he has been a lecturer and clinical professor of “Public Interest Litigation”, “Constitutional Theory”, and “Research Methods”, and an educator in multiple grassroots movements workshops on memory, criminal procedure, rights, and collective action.