Martina Caroni, born 1969 in Berne, Switzerland, is tenured Professor of International, Constitutional and Comparative law at the University of Lucerne. After attending schools in Berne, Switzerland and Florence, Italy, Martina Caroni studied law at the University of Berne, Switzerland and Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. During her studies at the University of Berne, Martina Caroni worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology. Upon graduating from the University of Berne, Martina Caroni worked first as a research associate then as senior research associate at the Institute for Public Law of the University of Berne. In addition, she also clerked for six month as lawyer at the Secretariat of the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

In 1998 Martina Caroni completed her doctoral dissertation on the protection of private and family life in immigration matters. The doctoral dissertation was awarded the Walter Hug prize for one of the best doctoral dissertations in 1999. While at Yale Law School, Martina Caroni was awarded in 2001 the Master of Laws (LL.M.) and began her research on her habilitation (post-doctoral thesis) on campaign financing in Switzerland.

Since April 2002 Martina Caroni teaches and researches at the University of Lucerne, first as Assistant Professor and since 2006 as full Professor for International, Constitutional and Comparative law.

Martina Caroni is Director of the Lucerne Academy for Human Rights Implementation, project leader in the National Center of Competence in Research NCCR – on the move and heads the Research Center for Human Rights in Southeast Asia which is currently being established at the University of Lucerne. Furthermore, she is a member of the Federal Commission on Migration and has extensively published on migration issues.