Tara Melish

Tara J. Melish is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School. Professor Melish's research interests include comparative approaches to the protection of economic, social, and cultural rights. She also takes part in litigation and reporting efforts before the United Nations and Inter-American human rights bodies. Several of her most significant publications include "The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Beyond Progressivity" and "The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Defending Social Rights Through Case-Based Petitions" in Social Rights Jurisprudence: Emerging Trends in Comparative and International Law (with Malcolm Langford; Cambridge University Press, 2008), "The UN Disability Convention: Historic Process, Strong Prospects, and Why the U.S. Should Ratify" in the Human Rights Brief (2007), "Rethinking the 'Less as More' Thesis: Supranational Litigation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Americas," in the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (2006), and "Maximum Feasible Participation of the Poor: New Governance, New Accountability, and a 21st Century War on the Sources of Poverty," in the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal (2010). Professor Melish has previously worked in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN Secretariat and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal. In addition, Professor Melish received multiple fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and Yale Law School. She has also contributed as a visiting assistant professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Melish graduated with a J.D. from Yale Law School and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.