Short Bio
Tainá Garcia Maia is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN). Her current research explores the use of equality as a tool for the judicialization of poverty through a comparative study of Latin American apex courts. Other research areas in her postdoctoral work include inequality and social stratification, democracy and autocratization, and law and politics, with a focus on Latin American institutions. Dr Garcia Maia completed her PhD in Law summa cum laude in 2023 at the University of Münster and the Federal University of Minas Gerais, focusing on the interconnections between poverty and inequality in Brazil. She holds a Master’s degree in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Oslo, where she was awarded a Fritt Ord Student Scholarship. Prior to joining CHREN, she was a research fellow at the University of Münster, working on the ERC-Consolidator Grant project “Correcting Inequality through Law”. Her professional experience includes positions as a visiting scholar at the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, a visiting professional at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and a special adviser at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in New York. She is the author of the book Judging Poverty and Inequality in Brazil (Oxford University Press, 2026).
Tainá’s project explores the interplay between poverty and inequality, with a focus on poverty adjudication and judicial lawmaking in Latin American jurisdictions. Centred on the case study of Latin American apex and regional courts (the Colombian Constitutional Court, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), the study assesses whether and how these courts have addressed poverty and socio-economic inequality and fulfilled their transformative promises.
Monograph
- Garcia Maia, Tainá. Judging Poverty and Inequality in Brazil (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026).
Most relevant peer-reviewed articles
- Garcia Maia, Tainá. “Migration Law in Brazil Across Regime Change (1889–2023): Selective Liberalism Under Rule by Decree?”, Hague Journal on the Rule of Law (upcoming publication).
- Garcia Maia, Tainá (2023) “Challenging the Use of External Sources by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights”, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 72(4), 977–1011.
Most relevant book chapters and encyplopedia entries
- Garcia Maia, Tainá. “Inter-American Court of Human Rights”, “Colombia”, and “Brazil”. In: Petersen, Niels (ed.), Equality’s Guardians: A Comparative Study on How Courts Conceptualize Equal Protection and Non-Discrimination Guarantees (Oxford University Press, 2025).
- Garcia Maia, Tainá (2023) “Translation: Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)”. In Ruiz Fabri, Hélène (ed), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (Oxford University Press).
- Co-founder of the Working Group on Socio-Economic Inequalities and Poverty (2024-present).
- Coordinator of the study group on human rights and minority rights of the Afro-Brazilian International Law Initiative (2024).
- Awarded the Fritt Ord Student Scholarship in Norway for her Master’s thesis (2018).