Dr. Maroun Maalouf is an international law expert and human rights attorney. He currently works as a Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law at the Smith Family Human Rights Clinic, Columbia Law School, where he collaborates with students, civil society, and international organizations in legal human rights advocacy and critical pedagogy. He is also an Associate Research Scholar at the Human Rights Institute.

Prior to this Dr. Maalouf worked at the United Nations Office in Geneva and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as an Associate Legal Officer and a Human Rights Officer. In these roles, he focused on international public, humanitarian, criminal, and human rights law. His responsibilities centered on monitoring human rights violations, investigating the fate and whereabouts of missing persons, and negotiating and building cooperation frameworks with national jurisdictions, civil society, and intergovernmental organizations.

Maroun holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) and an LL.M. (Cum Laude) in International Law and Justice from Fordham University Law School, which he completed as a Fulbright Scholar, and an LL.B. in Law from Haifa University Faculty of Law. During his S.J.D., he co-supervised the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at Fordham University, directing projects related to juvenile detention, gender equality, domestic violence, and enforced disappearances.  

His doctoral thesis investigates the intersection between legal theory and human rights advocacy. It examines how instrumental non-conventional tools of international human rights law, and "soft" international public law, can advance full equality for marginalized communities and indigenous minorities across various jurisdictions. More broadly, his research explores the pathways through which international law's strategic unconventional mechanisms can incentivize or compel member states to uphold human rights standards, adopt anti-discrimination legislation, and promote notions of equality, justice, and full citizenship.