International Law Expert Sergio Puig Selected to Join the European University Institute

Evo DeConcini Professor of Law and Director of the International Trade and Business Law Program Sergio Puig has been selected as the Joint Chair in International Economic Law with the European University Institute’s Department of Law and the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies. Puig was selected through a comprehensive and competitive process and will spend the next five years teaching and researching at the Institute near Florence, Italy. Puig will remain affiliated with University of Arizona Law, continuing to teach two classes a year as well as mentoring law students at the college. 

The European University Institute (EUI) is a postgraduate research institute set up in 1972 by the Member States of the (now) European Union. The EUI consists of several academic departments, including Economics, History and Civilization, and Political and Social Sciences in addition to Law.  The EUI also includes the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and the School of Transnational Governance, both of which conduct work on contemporary challenges and the global economy.

As part of the position, Puig will supervise doctoral researchers across a wide range of themes of international law and contribute to the research activities of the Schuman Center.

“I am excited for this next stage of my career. It is one of, if not, the most prestigious positions in my field and I am humbled by the appointment,” said Puig. “I am looking forward to working alongside a cadre of top-notch professors and researchers with a global reach, engaged in addressing the core issues of our times from multiple viewpoints. Coming from Tucson, I hope to contribute a unique perspective that reflects the values of our border community.”

A leading figure in the field of international economic law, Puig’s scholarship and teaching focuses on international trade and investment law, business and human rights, international courts and tribunals and economic rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the latest edition of the Sisk et. al study of scholarly impact, he was listed among the top most cited faculty members from Arizona Law. 

Christopher L. Griffin, Jr., director of empirical and policy research, observed about Puig, “Sergio represents so much about why University of Arizona Law scholarship is held in such high esteem. The range of his international economic law work covers not only high-level arbitration but also the lived experiences of marginalized communities. It’s no wonder that Sergio’s has risen to positions of international leadership on these issues.”

In 2021 Puig published “At the Margins of Globalization: Indigenous Peoples under International Economic Law”, a book arguing for a different approach to economic globalization. A native from Mexico City, with degrees from ITAM and Stanford, he has been appointed by the Mexican Government to the Constitutional Commission for Indigenous Rights’ Reform as well as to hear one of NAFTA’s largest ever investment disputes. Puig also participated in the drafting of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration, is Co-editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law and a member of the Board of Editors for the American Journal of International Law.