Biography

Co-Director, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation
Professor of Political Science (by courtesy)
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar works at the intersection of law, public policy, and political science. A member of the Stanford Law School faculty since 2001, he has served in the Obama and Clinton Administrations, testified before lawmakers, and has an extensive record of involvement in public service. His research and teaching focus on administrative law, executive power, and how organizations implement regulatory responsibilities involving public health and safety, migration, and international security in a changing world. He is the Co-Director of Stanford’s university-wide Center for International Security and Cooperation.

From early 2009 through the summer of 2010, he served as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy at the White House. Among other issues, Cuéllar worked on stricter food safety standards, federal sentencing and law enforcement reform, civil rights policy, enhancing regulatory transparency, and strengthening border coordination and immigrant integration. Before working on the White House Domestic Policy Council staff, he co-chaired the Obama-Biden Transition’s Immigration Policy Working Group. During the second term of the Clinton Administration, he worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement.

In July 2010, the President appointed him to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent agency charged with improving the efficiency and fairness of federal regulatory programs. He also serves on the Department of Education’s National Commission on Educational Equity and Excellence, and the Department of State’s Advisory Sub-Committee on Economic Sanctions. In addition, he is a board member of the Constitution Project, a non-profit think tank that builds bipartisan consensus on constitutional and legal issues.

After graduating from Calexico High School in California’s Imperial Valley, he received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford. He clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Key Works

• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Governing Security: The Hidden Origins of American Security Agencies, Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2012.
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 'Securing' the Nation: Law, Politics, and Organization at the Federal Security Agency, 1939-1953, 76 University of Chicago Law Review 587 (2009).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Political Economies of Criminal Justice, 75 University of Chicago Law Review 941 (2008).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Auditing Executive Discretion, 82 Notre Dame Law Review 227 (2006).
• Dara K. Cohen, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, and Barry R. Weingast. Crisis Bureaucracy: Homeland Security and the Political Design of Legal Mandates, 59 Stanford Law Review 673 (2006).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Refugee Security and the Organizational Logic of Legal Mandates, 38 Georgetown Journal of International Law 1302 (2006).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Rethinking Regulatory Democracy 57 Administrative Law Review 411 (2005).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The International Criminal Court and the Political Economy of Antitreaty Discourse, 55 Stanford Law Review 1597 (May 2003).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, The Tenuous Relationship Between the Fight Against Money Laundering and the Disruption of Criminal Finance, 93 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 311 (Winter & Spring 2003).

In the News

• ICC Turns Ten: A Measure Of Justice
  The Huffington Post, May 30, 2012
• CISAC receives $2.45 million research grant
  The Stanford Daily, April 19, 2012
• Q&A;: Stanford’s Cuéllar And US diplomat On Human Rights And The Internet
  The Freeman Spogli Institute For International Studies, February 06, 2012
• U.S. Rep Outlines Online Security Bill
  The Stanford Daily, January 17, 2012

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Administrative Law
• Criminal Law
• Executive Power
• History and Future of Citizenship and the State
• International Criminal Law
• Legal Studies Workshop
• Legislation

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Governing Security: The Hidden Origins of American Security Agencies, Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2012.
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Political Economies of Immigration Law,, 2 UC Irvine law review 1 (2012). Also: Stanford Public Law Working Paper (2012) Available at SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=2027278.
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Connor Raso, "The Arms of Democracy": Economic Security in the Nation's Broader National Security Agenda, in Shared Responsibility, Shared Risk: Government, Markets and Social Policy in the Twenty-First Century, Jacob S. Hacker, Ann O'Leary, editors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 'Securing' the Nation: Law, Politics, and Organization at the Federal Security Agency, 1939-1953, 76 University of Chicago Law Review 587 (2009).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Institutional Logic of Preventive Crime, Stanford Public Law Working Paper, No. 1272235 (October 2008).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Political Economies of Criminal Justice, 75 University of Chicago Law Review 941 (2008).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Limits of the Limits of Idealism: Rethinking American Refugee Policy in an Insecure World, 1 Harvard Law & Policy Review 401 (2007).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Untold Story of al-Qaeda's Administrative Law Dilemmas, 91 Minnesota Law Review 1302 (2007).
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Running Aground: The Hidden Environmental and Regulatory Implications of Homeland Security, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy Issue Brief, May 2007.
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 'Securing' the Bureaucracy: The Federal Security Agency and the Political Design of Legal Mandates, 1939-1953, Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 943084 (2006).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Board of Directors, American Constitution Society (since 2011)
• Board of Directors, The Constitution Project (since 2010)
• Board of Advisers, Asylum Access, Inc. (since 2010)
• OMB Watch Task Force on Government Management of the Regulatory Process
• Executive Committee, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (since 2007)
• Co-Chair, Regulatory Policy Committee, American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (2007-2008)
• Vice Chair, Rulemaking Committee, American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (2005-2007)
• Affiliated Faculty Member, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (since 2002)
• Member, Executive Committee, Stanford International Initiative (2006-2008)
• Member, Santa Clara County Bar, Presidential Commission on Diversity in the Legal Profession (2006-2007)
• Member, Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security (2002)

Honors and Awards

• Asian Law Alliance, Community Impact Award (2012)
• Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley, Keynote Speaker and Civil Rights Champion Award (2011)
• San Francisco La Raza Lawyers’ Association, Lawyer of the Year (2011)
• Delivered Presidential Invited Address, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois (2010)
• First Annual Public Service Award, Fresno Latino Rotary Club (2010)
• Elected Member, American Law Institute
• Fellow, U.S.-Japan Foundation
• Recognized as author of one of the ten best pieces of legal scholarship on global security and justice of 2007 (for "The Untold Story of Al-Qaeda's Administrative Law Dilemmas") by editors of the Oxford University Press 2007 Reader on Global Security and Justice