Javier Martínez-Torrón
Professor of Law, Complutense University
Areas of Expertise
Conscientious Objection; International Protection of Religious Freedom; Religious Minorities in Spain; Historical Influence of Canon Law on the Anglo-American Legal Tradition
Martínez-Torrón’s research interests include conscientious objection, the international protection of religious freedom, religious minorities in Spain, and the historical influence of canon law on the Anglo-American legal tradition.
He has been director of the Department of Law and Religion at Complutense University since 2009. Recent books include Religion and the Secular State – La religion et l’Etat laïque, edited with W. Cole Durham Jr., (Servicio de Publicaciones de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Complutense, 2015); Religion and Law in Spain, (Wolters-Kluwer, The Netherlands 2014); and Tensiones entre libertad de expresión y libertad religiosa, edited with S. Cañamares, (Tirant Lo Blanch, Valencia 2014.)
He was previously chair of the Area of Law and Religion at the University of Granada, where he was founder and director of the Seminar of Comparative Law. He has been visiting professor and researcher in many universities in Spain and throughout Europe, North America, and Latin America, including Cambridge University, Harvard University, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He has lectured at more than eighty universities or institutions in five continents.
He is co-founder and co-editor of the Revista General de Derecho Canónico y Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado (2003), the first electronic legal periodical in Spain specialized on Church-State relations and canon law. He was on the editorial board of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal, published by Cambridge University Press (2006) and the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, published by Oxford University Press (2012). He was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho y Religión (Chile, 2015).
He holds a doctorate in canon law.