S.J.D. Candidate
Graduate Fellow
LL.M. Advisor
wcesta at sjd.law.harvard.edu
Dissertation
Constitutional Commitments to Public Education
As no one is born with the capacities and dispositions required to sustain democracy, societies trying to become or remain “democratic” must devise ways of cultivating them. They must ensure that members are informed, capable of articulating ideas, able to understand and use political levers of change ethically, and so on. The insufficient attainment of these capacities and dispositions reduces democracy to an empty shell—a communications strategy that legitimates governance by the few and fails to guard against tyranny. While families, religious organizations, scouts, and vocational training academies can function as “engines” of democratic preparedness, the only institution that can plausibly ensure near-universal preparation for democratic life is public education. A key problem, then, is how to ensure that education systems discharge their essential democratic functions in perpetuity (or, put differently, how societies can avoid downward spirals that erode education systems and democratic preparedness in lockstep). This dissertation is about how constitutional law contributes – and could contribute – to solving that problem.
Fields of Research and Supervisors
- Law, Democracy, and Education with Professor Martha Minow, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Education Rights with Professor Vicki Jackson, Harvard Law School
- History of Law and Education with Professor Michael Klarman, Harvard Law School
- Education, Technology, and Society with Professor José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney
- Education Law and System Change with Professor Michael Gregory, Harvard Law School
Additional Research Interests
- Artificial intelligence and the legal profession
- Artificial intelligence and consumer law
- Legal philosophy
- Empirical legal studies
Education
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2025 – Present
- Harvard Law School, LL.M. 2024-2025 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
- Sydney Law School, J.D. 2023
- Sydney Conservatorium of Music, B.Mus 2017
Academic Appointments and Fellowships
- Harvard Law School, 2025-2026, Graduate Fellow, LL.M. Advisor
- New South Wales Law and Justice Foundation, 2024-2025, Justice Fellow
- Honorary Fellow, 2024 – Present, St Andrew’s College
Representative Publications
- Will Cesta, “Large language models and community legal centers” (2024) 49(3) Alternative Law Journal 181
- Will Cesta, “The regulation of judicial analytics” (2024) 6(2) Law, Technology and Humans 69
- Will Cesta, “Disabilities, markets, and rights” (2023) 48(3) Alternative Law Journal 172
Additional Information
- Languages: English (native), Italian (limited working proficiency)
- Piano recordings: Beethoven, Piano Sonata Op. 57; Smetana, Concert Etude in G# Minor; Schumann, Symphonic Etudes Op. 13
Last updated: July 1, 2025