Mugambi Jouet

Mugambi Jouet (born c. 1981) is a professor at the USC Gould School of Law. An author and human rights lawyer, he writes in both English and French about legal, political, and social issues with a focus on American exceptionalism and criminal justice. He has been interviewed on radio and television about how American society compares to France, Canada, and other countries.

Early life, education and career

Jouet grew up in Paris and moved to the United States for university. He was a history major at Rice University before studying public policy at NYU and law at Northwestern. He subsequently worked as a public defender in Manhattan. After living 11 years in America, he returned to Europe to practice international criminal law at a tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

He joined the McGill University Faculty of Law in 2019 as assistant professor, after teaching at Stanford Law School. In 2022, he became associate professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.

In addition to being interviewed by the American, French, and Canadian media, Mother Jones, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Republic, Salon, The Huffington Post, Truthout, The Hill, Le Nouvel Observateur, Libération, and Le Monde.

In an op-ed article for Le Monde, Jouet described his experiences as a public defender in New York and noted that criminal sentencing in America is far harsher than in other democratic countries due to mass incarceration. Jouet attributed this difference to various factors, including the tendency to focus on retribution rather than on prisoner rehabilitation, humanitarian issues, and root social causes of crime. He also called in question demands for harsher punishments in France, stating that such reforms would not necessarily reduce crime, as illustrated by America's case.