Fabio is an Associate Professor of International Studies and the Wick Cary Professor of Brazilian Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where he co-directs the Center for Brazil Studies. He is also an Affiliated Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession and serves as the President of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) for the 2026–2028 term. Trained in law and the social sciences, he studies the relationship between law, political power, and democracy, with a focus on Brazil and comparative perspectives.
His recent work examines how legal institutions and arguments can both enable and resist democratic backsliding. His studies on Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) have gained significant notoriety by demonstrating how an anti-corruption crusade, orchestrated by legal professionals, bypassed constitutional guardrails and systematically set the stage for regressive political change in Brazil.
He is a co-convener of the international Project on Autocratic Legalism, host of PAL’s Podcast PALcast, and lead editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook on Autocratic Legalism (2027). His next major project explores how competing understandings of lawful authority emerged and were contested during Brazil’s recent democratic crisis. A related line of research considers the role of lawyers, legal education, and professional governance in sustaining the rule of law. In 2025, he was a candidate for a seat at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, nominated by Brazil.
