The Board of Directors of the Justice Studies Center of the Americas (JSCA) voted unanimously to elect Jenny Willier Murphy as its new President for 2021-2022 on December 11, 2020.

During its XLII meeting, the Board also elected Daniel Petrone as its Vice President. Petrone served as the entity’s President for the past two years. JSCA was created in 1999 by the Organization of American States (OAS) to support the reform and modernization processes of the justice systems of the region. 

The members of the Board also recognized the contributions and professional and personal efforts of Board member and renowned Uruguayan attorney and academic Margarita de Hegedus and George M. Thomson, a Canadian attorney who served as the Board Vice President during the most recent period. Both Board members completed their terms in 2020.

The New Board President

Jenny Willier Murphy is an expert on the rule of law. She has over 20 years of experience and has worked in various capacities for USAID, the State Department and international development agencies such as Creative Associates International.

As a government official, she has provided technical assistance to US embassies in various countries through her work at USAID and in the State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

At the State Department, Murphy worked in the US mission to the OAS Policy Section, where she was assigned the hemispheric security division. As a senior advisor on rule of law, she advised USAID missions around the world on judicial and legal reform, particularly in regard to improving judicial administration and access to justice.

She also collaborated with the donor community and coordinated US government agencies’ efforts related to the funding, design and programming of foreign assistance for the rule of law with the OAS, UNDP, World Bank and US Judiciary’s International Judicial Relations Committee. 

Jenny Willier Murphy also advised various Latin American countries on judicial and legal reform matters including the implementation of new criminal procedure codes and issues related to judicial administration. She earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Spanish at University of Virginia and a Juris Doctorate at the American University Washington College of Law.

The New Board Vice President

Daniel Petrone -who will serve for one year to provide continuity to the Center’s work- is an attorney who holds a law degree from Universidad de Buenos Aires. He also completed graduate work in Criminal Law at Universidad de Palermo and earned a master’s degree in Law from the same institution. Petrone also completed the Judicial Modernization and Updating Course offered by Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

He has served as an Oral Criminal Court judge in the Province of Buenos Aires, a National Financial Crimes Judge and currently serves as a judge in Federal Oral Trial Chamber Number 2 in San Martín, Argentina.

Petrone has directed practica related to Criminal Law and Procedure Law at Universidad de Buenos Aires and has taught graduate courses at the same institution. He was an adjunct professor of Criminal Law I at Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Lead Professor of the Criminal Law Workshop (Oral Litigation) at Universidad de Palermo and is currently teaching the course “Computer-Related Crimes” in the graduate program at the latter school. Petrone is also Associate Professor of Criminal Law I at Universidad Católica de Santiago del Estero. He has participated as a trainer in various oral hearing litigation courses offered by civil society organization Unidos por la Justicia.

In addition, he has taught several regional workshops on cybercrime organized by the OAS and US Department of Justice. Petrone is the author of several articles and the author and co-author of various books related to criminal law, financial crimes law and prison issues. He completed JSCA’s Inter-American Program for Training Trainers on Criminal Justice Reform.