Carmen Plaza has a BA and PhD in law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master in European Community law from the University of Essex (UK).

From 2005 to 2012, Ms Plaza was Full Professor at the Law Faculty of the Castilla-La Mancha University (Toledo, Spain), where she taught EU Law, Environmental Law, Human Rights and EU Sex Discrimination. She has been a visiting researcher at Harvard University and an adviser in the Office of the Minister of the Environment and in the Rectory of the Universidad Complutense.