Christian L. González-Rivera
Assistant Professor of Law
Email: cgonzalezrivera@stu.edu
Phone: 305.623.2341
Mail:
St. Thomas University College of Law
Faculty Suite (209)
16401 NW 37th Ave
Miami Gardens, FL 33054
Education:
B.A. (Psychology & Philosophy), University of Puerto Rico
C.G.S. (Greek & Latin Languages), University of Vermont
J.D., St. Thomas University College of Law
Certificate in Intercultural Human Rights, St. Thomas University College of Law
LL.M. (Intercultural Human Rights), St. Thomas University College of Law
Expertise:
Constitutional Law
Legal Interpretation
Philosophy of Law
International Law
Christian L. González-Rivera
Christian Lee González-Rivera is an Assistant Professor of Law at St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law in the tenure track. His teaching focuses on Constitutional Law, including First Amendment, Advanced Constitutional Law, and Comparative Constitutional Law. He also teaches an annual seminar on Jurisprudence, where students learn to think about classical and contemporary legal methodologies, philosophies of law, and theories of interpretation.
Professor González-Rivera’s legal scholarship currently centers on three main ongoing projects. First, the development of an originalist theory of constitutional interpretation that incorporates and operationalizes Policy-Oriented Jurisprudence (the works of Myres McDougal, Harold Lasswell, and Michael Reisman) in our domestic adjudication process, centered around the concepts of human dignity, freedom, and flourishing. Second, a theory and empirical account of federal police powers, especially in the case of emergencies or so-called “states of exception,” to better analyze and appraise judicial review of emergency Covid-19 measures during the last 4 years. And third, a theory and account of the intersection of our constitutional law and international law and human rights commitments.
Professor González-Rivera has been recently awarded a fellowship as a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution, where he will conduct and present some of his research and writing on federal emergency police powers this Fall 2024.
Professor González-Rivera holds a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Puerto Rico (magna cum laude), a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Greek and Latin Languages from the University of Vermont (magna cum laude), and a J.D. (magna cum laude) and LL.M. (summa cum laude) in Intercultural Human Rights from St. Thomas University College of Law. As a philosophy and classics student, he published and presented papers on Aristotelian Ontology and Hellenistic Ethics, focusing on the role of metaphor in philosophical argument. In law school, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review and Vice President of the School’s International Moot Court team, among other roles, publishing several law review articles on topics ranging from international law and human trafficking to federalism and jurisprudence.
Upon graduating, Professor González-Rivera served as senior law clerk to the Honorable Judge Fleur Lobree at Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal, where he managed over 200 appeals and writ petitions. Before joining STU as a full-time Assistant Professor of Law, he worked as trial and appellate counsel at the firm of Butler Weihmuller Katz & Craig LLP, primarily handling federal cases.
Scholarship
Articles & Book Chapters:
Police Powers, Emergencies, and the U.S. Constitution: Early Republic Theory and Practice (1776-1830) (forthcoming, SSRN, to be produced during Center for the Constitution fellowship at Georgetown Law 2024).
Breaking the Spell: Why Common Good Constitutionalism Is Neither Good Nor Common Nor Even Constitutionalism (forthcoming, Summer 2024, SSRN).
Neither “Slot Machine” Nor “Genteel Hoax:” Constitutional Interpretation in Policy-Oriented Perspective, in Human Flourishing: The End of Law. Essays in Honor of Siegfried Wiessner 175-265 (Michael Reisman & Roza Pati eds., 2023) (print) (“Recommended” reading by Lawrence Solum’s Legal Theory Blog).
The Plight of “Unreasonable” Trafficking Victims: Replacing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s Reasonable Person Standard for Coercion with a Genuine Belief Standard, 40 Women Rts. L. Rep. 273 (2019) (print).
The ILC at its 70th Anniversary: Its Role in International Law and its Impact on the U.S. Legal System, 13 F.I.U. L. Rev. 101 (2019) (with Siegfried Wiessner) (print).
A Government by Men, Not Nature: A Natural Law Case for Limits on the Judicial Enforcement of Natural Law Principles and Unenumerated Rights under the Constitution, 24 Trinity L. Rev. 1 (2019) (print).
Law as a Means to Human Flourishing: Law, Morality, and Natural Law in Policy-Oriented Perspective, 14 Intercultural Hm. Rts. L. Rev. 289 (2019) (print).
The Origins of English Judicial Review in Lord Coke’s Dr. Bonham’s Case: A Reassessment, Fundamina (forthcoming/in progress 2025).
Books:
Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, Constitutional Bulwarks Under Stress: A Policy-Oriented Analysis of Emergency Powers During the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States (ongoing JSD thesis, publication as printed book required for graduation, expected 2026).
Michael Reisman, Mahnoush Arsanjani, Siegfried Wiessner, & Roza Pati, International Law in Contemporary Perspective (3d ed., Foundation Press, forthcoming 2025-2026) (assisted with case and other material excerpting, footnote drafting, and research) (print).
Intercultural Human Rights Law Review: The Importance of Morals to Law Vol. 14, pp. 1-416 (Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, Editor-in-Chief, 2019) (print).
Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Vol. 13, pp. 1-336 (Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, Executive Editor, 2018) (print).
Conferences & Symposia:
Law and Policy in Development: Governance and the Constitutive Process, Society of Policy Scientists’ Annual Institute, The World Bank, Washington, D.C. (Nov. 9, 2023) (with Siegfried Wiessner).
Panelist, A Fireside Chat with Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd ‘98: A Discussion of the Constitutional Duties of the Florida Secretary of State on Constitution Day, St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law, Miami Gardens, FL, Sept. 18, 2023.
Discussant to Logan Beirne, Big Brother Watching: A Historical Perspective, The Federalist Society STU Chapter, Miami Gardens, FL, February 22, 2023.
Program Chair, Opening Remarks, Human Dignity: The Heart of Ethical Leadership, 2019 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Annual Symposium with speakers Elsa Meany, Lauren Gilbert, Desmond Meade, Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez, Juan Carlos Planas, and Anthony Musto (moderated by Siegfried Wiessner and Jay Silver), St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, FL, March 19, 2019.
Program Chair, 2018 Supreme Court Roundtable with speakers Ilya Shapiro, Juan Carlos Planas, and Alfredo Garcia (moderated by Siegfried Wiessner), Federalist Society, St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, FL, Sept. 20, 2018.
Program Chair, Natural Law and the U.S. Constitution with speaker Roger Pilon (moderated by Siegfried Wiessner), Federalist Society, St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, FL, Jan. 25, 2018.
- Advanced Constitutional Law
- Appellate Advocacy
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Conflict of Laws
- Constitutional Law
- First Amendment Law
- Judicial Decision-Making
- Jurisprudence
- Moot Court
- Torts
