Prof Luis Franceschi

Prof Luis G. Franceschi, LLB, LL.M, LL.D is the Assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth. He coordinates the Political, Democracy, Electoral, Public Sector Governance, Good Offices, Rule of Law, Judicial Transformation, Human Rights, and Countering Violence and Extremism work in the 56 member countries. He is also the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting - CHOGM Conference Secretary, and, together with the Head of the Host Country Task Force, oversees the organisation and negotiations throughout the meeting.

Prof Franceschi was the founding Dean of Strathmore Law School. As a thinker, educator and writer, he loves positive and disruptive innovation. He was the recipient of the 2019 legal excellence CB Madan Award and the 2018 Utumishi Bora National Award. In 2019, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/luis-franceschi) and U.C. Berkeley Law School. His area of expertise focuses on judicial transformation, comparative constitutional law and innovation in legal education. He has been a legal advisor to several national and international government agencies, including international and regional courts, the United Nations and the World Bank. He sits on several boards and has been a Governing Council Delegate and the Legal Advisor to the President of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme, where he co-drafted the UN Nairobi Declaration.

His latest publications are, “Mapping the Legal Contours of Presidential Electoral Law in Kenya: A Case Review of Raila Odinga v Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission”, (The Routledge Handbook of African Law, coordinated by Prof Muna Ndulo, Cornell Law School, Routledge, 2022); “The Rule of Law, Human Rights and Judicial Control of Power”, Springer; “Judicial Independence and Accountability in Light of the Judiciary Code of Conduct and Ethics of Kenya” ICJ Kenya; “The Cost of the Constitution in Kenya: A Cost Analysis of the New Governance Framework Introduced by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya”, Harvard Africa Policy Review; “The Constitution of Kenya; a Commentary” (2019 second edition of a 900-page article by article commentary of the Constitution of Kenya), SUP. He was also a weekly columnist with the Daily Nation Newspaper (Kenya). Prof Franceschi likes cycling, running and mountain climbing and has reached Point Lenana, Mt Kenya (5000 Meters ASL) 5 times, Uhuru Peak on Kilimanjaro (5895 Meters ASL) and the Rwenzori Mountains circuit (Uganda-Congo).

Experience

The Commonwealth

3 years 10 months

Assistant Secretary General

July 2022 - Present (1 year 4 months)

London, England, United Kingdom

Senior Director - Governance & Peace

January 2020 - Present (3 years 10 months)

London, United Kingdom

University of California, Berkeley

Visiting Scholar

December 2019 - January 2020 (2 months)

Berkeley, California

University of Oxford

2019 Michaelmas Research Fellow

2019 - January 2020 (1 year)

Oxford, United Kingdom

Strathmore Law School

16 years 10 months

Dean

January 2012 - January 2020 (8 years 1 month)

Chairman - Ethics Conference

April 2003 - August 2013 (10 years 5 months)