Professor, Catedratico de Universidad, Universidad Complutense
Madrid, Spain
Javier Martínez-Torrón is Doctor utroque iure (Doctor of Law and of Canon Law). He is Professor of Law at Complutense University (Madrid). He obtained his first chair at the University of Granada (1993), where he founded and directed the Seminar of Comparative Law. Prof. Martínez-Torrón has been a visiting professor and researcher at Universities in Europe, North America, and Latin America. He is an Associate member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, and Vice-President of its Section of Canon Law and Church-State Relations. He is currently a member of the Advisory Commission on Religious Freedom at the Spanish Ministry of Justice. He is also a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief, and of the International Advisory Council of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion and Belief. In 1995, he helped found the first Spanish legal periodical specifically focused on religious and legal issues of the State (Anuario de Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado, 1995). He is one of the founders and the Deputy Director of the Revista General de Derecho Canónico y Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado (2003). In the field of religion, his research has focused especially on conscientious objection, the international protection of religious freedom, the legal status of religious minorities in Spain, and the historical influence of canon law on the Anglo-American legal tradition. The results of his research have been published in Spanish, English, Italian, French, Russian, and Lithuanian.