Luís Roberto Barroso

Luís Roberto Barroso (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɫwis, ɫwiʃ ʁoˈbeɾtu baˈʁɔzu]; born 11 March 1958) is a Brazilian law professor, jurist, and retired Justice of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, having been nominated to the position by President Dilma Rousseff in 2013. Between 2020 and 2022, Barroso also served as President of the Superior Electoral Court.

Barroso graduated in law from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), holds a Master's Degree in law from Yale University, and a PhD from UERJ. He has done post-doctoral studies at Harvard Law School and he is a professor of Constitutional Law at UERJ.

He is considered a liberal and progressive Justice, providing landmark votes on the legalization of abortion in pregnancies originated from rape and the criminalization of homophobia and transphobia in Brazil.

On 18 October 2025, Justice Barroso officially retired from the Supreme Court.

Life and career

Born in the city of Vassouras, Barroso received a bachelor's degree in law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) in 1980, and an LL.M. from Yale Law School in 1987. He received a doctorate in public law from UERJ in 2008 and is a tenured professor of constitutional law at the university. In 2011, Barroso was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, and while in the United States published the paper "Here, there and everywhere: human dignity in contemporary law and in the transnational discourse".

At 2011, Barroso became nationally known for being the lawyer of the militant Cesare Battisti in Brazil. Barroso implemented a defense that argued that his client's actions were justified because the actions were part of Battisti's fight against an authoritarian Italian regime.