Biography
Trained as a lawyer and a political scientist, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar focuses his scholarship on how organizations cope with the legal responsibility for managing complex criminal justice, regulatory, and international security problems. He has published a leading academic paper on the regulation of criminal financial activity, and one of the most exhaustive empirical case studies of public participation in regulatory rulemaking proceedings. Recent projects address the role of criminal enforcement in managing transnational threats, immigration and refugee policy in the United States and the developing world, the scope of “national security” during the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush, the organization of legislative jurisdiction, and the impact of bureaucratic structure on how institutions implement domestic and international legal mandates.
Professor Cuéllar is on the Executive Committees of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation as well as the Stanford International Initiative. In recent years, he has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, served as a fellow of the U.S.-Japan Foundation, and worked on initiatives for the reform of health and safety regulatory analysis. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2001, he served as senior advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department's Under Secretary for Enforcement and clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Key Works
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Political Economies of Criminal Justice, 75 University of Chicago Law Review (2008).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Untold Story of al-Qaeda's Administrative Law Dilemmas, 91 Minnesota Law Review 1302 (2007).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Auditing Executive Discretion, 82 Notre Dame Law Review (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 (2006).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Refugee Security and the Organizational Logic of Legal Mandates, 38 Georgetown Journal of International Law(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 1597-1632 (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 311-465 (Winter & Spring 2003).
In the News
Courses & Programs
Courses
Publications & Cases
Recent Publications View All
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, The Political Economies of Criminal Justice, 75 University of Chicago Law Review (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).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Auditing Executive Discretion, 82 Notre Dame Law Review (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 (2006).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Refugee Security and the Organizational Logic of Legal Mandates, 38 Georgetown Journal of International Law(2006).
- William J. Aceves, Kevin R. Sullivan, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Jenny S. Martinez and Allen S. Weiner, Brief of Amici Curiae Bar Associations, Human Rights Organizations and Other Legal Groups in Support of Petitioners: Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon/Bustillo v. Johnson, Case No. 04-10566; 05-51 in the Supreme Court of the United States (December 2005).
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Jenny Martinez. Why Latinos Should Oppose the Gonzales Nomination, Human Rights First, January 27, 2005.
Affiliations & Honors
Professional Affiliations
- Member, Board of Directors, Asylum Access, Inc.
- 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
- Member, Executive Committee, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation
- Co-Chair, Regulatory Policy Committee, American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
- Vice Chair, Rulemaking Committee, American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
- Fellow, U.S.-Japan Foundation
- Affiliated Faculty Member, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation
- Member, Board of Directors, Institute for Renewal of the California Dream
- Member, Executive Committee, Stanford International Initiative
- Member, Santa Clara County Bar, Presidential Commission on Diversity in the Legal Profession

- tcuellar@stanford.edu
- 650 723.9216
- Curriculum Vitae
- SSRN Published Papers
Education
- BA, Harvard University, 1993
- MA (political science), Stanford University, 1996
- JD, Yale Law School, 1997
- PhD (political science), Stanford University, 2000
Expertise
- Administrative Law
- Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
- Federal and International Criminal Law
- International and National Security (Terrorism, Law of Force, and Related Topics)
- International Law
- Migration and Refugees
- Regulatory Policy
- The Legislative Process