Mattia Pinto

Dr. Mattia Pinto is a Lecturer at York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, where he co-convenes the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice. He joined York in 2022 after teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His professional experience includes internships at the European Court of Human Rights and International Criminal Court, and research work at King's College London.

Education includes:

• PhD in Law from London School of Economics (2022)
• Single-Cycle Master’s Degree in Law from University of Bologna
• LLM in Transnational Law from King's College London
• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from LSE

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research focuses on critical intersections of human rights and penality through socio-legal and transnational perspectives. Three primary strands define his scholarship: (1) Human Rights as Sources of Penality, examining how rights frameworks simultaneously constrain and enable state penal power; (2) Rethinking Accountability Beyond Penal Frameworks, developing non-punitive responses to violence in collaboration with grassroots organizations; (3) Law as/and Discourse, creating methodological tools for socio-legal discourse analysis. His empirical work employs discourse analysis of legal texts across jurisdictions.

Publications consistently engage with human rights enforcement, criminalization dynamics, and transnational governance. Recent articles demonstrate critical examination of border penality, accountability for torture, decolonial feminism, and the punitive dimensions of human rights frameworks. Theoretical contributions advance understanding of how rights discourses shape contemporary penal systems globally.

Awards and distinctions:

• Editors' Choice: Theoretical Criminology (2025)
• Modern Law Review Scholarship (2021–22)

Research leadership includes current projects on police misconduct accountability and grassroots justice mechanisms. He co-convenes the Yorkshire Criminal Law Forum and contributes to the York Human Rights Workshop initiative.

Professional affiliations include membership in the Law and Society Association, Socio-Legal Studies Association, and serving as reviewer for leading journals in human rights law and criminology.