How do labor judges and inspectors persuade workers to settle their claims? How do multinational companies and worker representatives implement global agreements to promote workers’ rights to organize? Because these questions concern how law works "in action," I cannot find answers in law books alone. I must engage in socio-legal research.

My scholarship thus also draws on elite interviews with actors who possess specialized knowledge—such as company officials implementing private agreements—and ethnographic fieldwork based on participant observation. This immersive approach requires spending significant time in settings where I can understand how law operates on the ground. I have conducted this research at Chile's labor inspectorate and labor courts, following inspectors to copper mines, agricultural fields, and other workplaces. I also served as an organizer at Arise Chicago, a worker center, to learn how the organization advocated for workers without the resources of a traditional labor union.

Below is a list of my socio-legal publications. Some report original research; others analyze secondary data or set theoretical and research agendas.

Labor, Alt-Labor, and their Institutions

“Personal and Political: How the Illinois Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights Connected Lives,” (2024) 57 UC Davis Law Review 3033-3062.

“Fair Transition Funds, Employer Neutrality, and Card Checks: How Industrial Policy Could Relaunch Labor Unions in the United States,” in Todd Tucker ed., Bringing the State Back In (Again) (Roosevelt Institute, 2024)

“Alt-Labour and Worker Centres,” in Guy Davidov, Brian Langille & Gillian Lester eds., Oxford Handbook of the Law of Work 481-498 (Oxford University Press 2024)

“Organizing the State: The ‘New Labor Law’ Seen from the Bottom-Up” co-authored with Michael C. Oswalt (2018) 39:2 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 415-480.

“Worker Centers and the Moral Economy: Disrupting through Brokerage, Prestige, and Moral Framing” (2017) 2017 University of Chicago Legal Forum 409-434.

Wage Boards and Sectoral Bargaining

Quasi Tripartism: Limits of Co-Regulation and Sectoral Bargaining in the United States” (2023) 90(2) University of Chicago Law Review 703-738

“Wage Boards and Labor Revitalization: U.S. Aspirations and Uruguayan Realities” (2022) 32 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 109-151.

“Can Wage Boards Revive U.S. Labor? Marshaling Evidence from Puerto Rico” (2020) 95:1 Chicago-Kent Law Review 127-156.

• Winner of “Honorable Mention 2021,” Colegio de Abogados y Abogadas de Puerto Rico

“Successful Wage Moderation: Trust, Labor Market Centralization, and Wage Moderation in Puerto Rico’s Experience with Export-led Development” (2005) 9:2 Electronic Journal of Comparative Law .

Labor Inspection and Labor Courts

“The Labor Judge Unleashed: Rule of Law and Labor Rights in ‘Neoliberal’ Chile” (2018) 43:4 Law & Social Inquiry 1574-1603.

“El Bajo Vientre del Jaguar: La Fiscalización y la Ausencia de Autotutela en el Derecho Laboral Chileno” (The Jaguar’s Underbelly: Labor Inspection and Workers’ Self Organization in Chile) (2014) 2:1 Revista de Derecho Laboral y Seguridad Social 13-36.

“Punishment and Work Law Compliance, Lessons from Chile” (2012) 29:2 Hofstra University Labor and Employment Law Review 343-405.

International Framework Agreements / International Labor Rights

“The Limits of Human Rights for Labor Rights” in Jill M. Jensen and Nelson Lichtenstein eds., The ILO from Geneva to the Pacific Rim: West Meets East (Palgrave McMillan and International Labor Office 2016).

“Organizing with International Framework Agreements: An Exploratory Study” (2014) 4:2 UC Irvine Law Review 725-780.

“Labor’s Soft Means and Hard Challenges: Fundamental Discrepancies and the Promise of Non- Binding Arbitration for International Framework Agreements” (2014) 98:5 Minnesota Law Review 1749-1804.

Puerto Rico Labor

“Pirates of the Caribbean: SEIU’s Failed Bid in Puerto Rico” (2009) 12:2 Working USA, The Journal of Labor and Society 235-247.

“Solidarity or Colonialism? The Polemic of “Labor Colonialism” in Puerto Rico (2007) 10:3 Working USA, The Journal of Labor and Society 284-299.

“Derecho laboral y organización sindical en Puerto Rico” (Labor Law and Labor Organization in Puerto Rico) (2007) 68:1 Revista del Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico 124-150.

• Cited in dissenting Puerto Rico Supreme Court opinion, González v. Mayagüez Resort & Casino, (2009) 176 D.P.R. 848, 877 (2009).

“El impacto del arbitraje en los patrones huelgarios de Puerto Rico, 1956-1995” (The impact of Arbitration on Puerto Rico’s Strike Patterns) (2000-01) 31-32 Revista de Administración Pública 367-387.