Professor Natasa Mavronicola

Professor Natasa Mavronicola

Birmingham Law School
Professor of Human Rights Law

Contact details

Telephone
(0)121 414 9038
Email
n.mavronicola@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@NMavronicola
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Mavronicola joined Birmingham Law School as a Senior Lecturer in September 2016, and has been Professor of Human Rights Law since 2022. She was previously a Lecturer in Law at Queen’s University Belfast (2013-2016). Professor Mavronicola is chiefly interested in the theory and interpretation of human rights. Her research has focused on pursuing dynamic coherence in the interpretation of human rights. With this overarching agenda, she has probed various (often inter-related) aspects of human rights law: the concept of ‘absolute rights’; the delineation of negative and positive obligations under certain fundamental and well-elaborated rights, such as the right to life and the right not to be subjected to torture or related ill-treatment; various intersections between human rights and criminal justice, notably duties to mobilise the criminal law in supranational human rights doctrine; and the relationship between human dignity and human rights. She has published on these topics in a number of journals, including the Human Rights Law Review and the Modern Law Review, in edited collections, and in a recent monograph: Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs (Hart Publishing 2021) - recipient of the Society of Legal Scholars’ Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship.

Between March 2017 and July 2019, Professor Mavronicola served as Special Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Nils Melzer. In this period she worked on a number of thematic reports submitted by the Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly or Human Rights Council (such as report A/72/178 on the extra-custodial use of force; report A/HRC/40/59 on the relationship between torture and corruption; and report A/74/148 on domestic violence). She also advised on the Rapporteur's 2021 report A/76/168 on accountability for torture and ill-treatment. Professor Mavronicola has provided expert input to the Council of Europe on policing and ill-treatment, and on counter-terrorism and human rights, and has given evidence to the Oireachtas. Her research has been cited in Separate Opinions in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, in Svinarenko and Slyadnev v Russia and Savran v Denmark.

Qualifications

  • LLB (Hons), University College London (2007)
  • Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), University of Oxford (2008)
  • Linklaters Legal Practice Course (LPC), College of Law (2009)
  • Cyprus Bar (2010)
  • PhD in Law, University of Cambridge (2014)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching (PGCHET), Queen’s University Belfast (2015)

Biography

Professor Mavronicola joined Birmingham Law School as a Senior Lecturer in September 2016, and has been Professor of Human Rights Law since 2022. She was previously a Lecturer in Law at Queen’s University Belfast (2013-2016), a Teaching Fellow at University College London’s Faculty of Laws (2008-2012), and a supervisor and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Cambridge (2010-2012). She has also been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Osnabrück (2013-2015).

Professor Mavronicola graduated from University College London’s Faculty of Laws in 2007 with a First Class LLB (Hons), attaining the best degree result in her graduating class and receiving the Faculty’s Andrews Medal. She completed the BCL at the University of Oxford with Distinction in 2008. After qualifying as a lawyer in Cyprus in 2010, she completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2014, also spending three months as a visiting doctoral researcher at Harvard Law School. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has lectured in a range of subjects, including public law, legal theory, human rights, and counter-terrorism. 

Teaching

  • Human Rights and Criminal Justice (LLB) – Module Leader
  • Human Rights and Criminal Justice (LLM) – Module Leader
  • International Human Rights Law (LLB)
  • International Human Rights Law (LLM) – Module Leader

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Mavronicola is keen to supervise postgraduate research students whose research interests lie in the following areas:

torture and inhuman and degrading treatment
the right to life
the interpretation of human rights
LGBT* rights
the interplay between counter-terrorism and human rights
the relationship between human dignity and human rights
the intersections between human rights and criminal justice
the relationship of any of the above with legal philosophy

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Professor Mavronicola is chiefly interested in the theory and interpretation of human rights. Her research has focused on pursuing dynamic coherence in the interpretation of human rights. With this overarching agenda, she has probed the dynamics of negative and positive obligations under certain fundamental and well-elaborated rights, such as the right to life and the right not to be subjected to torture or related ill-treatment. Her research explores various intersections between human rights and criminal justice, notably duties to mobilise the criminal law in supranational human rights doctrine, as well as the relationship between human dignity and human rights. She has published on these topics in a number of journals, including the Human Rights Law Review and the Modern Law Review, and edited collections, as well as in a recent monograph: Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs (Hart Publishing 2021) - recipient of the Society of Legal Scholars Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship.

Between March 2017 and July 2019, Professor Mavronicola served as Special Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Nils Melzer. In this period she worked on a number of thematic reports submitted by the Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly or Human Rights Council (such as report A/72/178 on the extra-custodial use of force; report A/HRC/40/59 on the relationship between torture and corruption; and report A/74/148 on domestic violence). She also advised on the Rapporteur's 2021 report A/76/168 on accountability for torture and ill-treatment. Professor Mavronicola has also provided expert input to the Council of Europe on policing and ill-treatment, and on counter-terrorism and human rights, and has given evidence to the Oireachtas. 

Other activities

Professor Mavronicola is a member of KRW-Law LLP’s Academic Panel and Editor of the Cyprus Human Rights Law Review.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Mavronicola, N 2021, Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs. 1st edn, Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509903009

Mavronicola, N & Lavrysen, L (eds) 2020, Coercive Human Rights: Positive Duties to Mobilise the Criminal Law under the ECHR. Hart Publishing.

Article

Mavronicola, N 2022, 'The future is a foreign country: state (in)action on climate change and the right against torture and ill-treatment', Europe of Rights and Liberties/Europe des droits & Libertés, vol. 2022/2, no. 6, pp. 211-237. <https://www.europedeslibertes.eu/en/article/__trashed/>

Mavronicola, N 2019, 'Bouyid v Belgium: The 'Minimum Level of Severity' and Human Dignity's Role in Article 3 ECHR', European Convention on Human Rights Law Review.

Mavronicola, N 2017, 'Is the prohibition against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment absolute in international human rights law? A reply to Steven Greer', Human Rights Law Review, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 479–498. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngx019

Mavronicola, N 2017, 'Taking life and liberty seriously: reconsidering criminal liability under Article 2 of the ECHR', Modern Law Review, vol. 80, no. 6, pp. 1026–1051. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12301

Mavronicola, N 2015, 'Crime, punishment and Article 3 ECHR: puzzles and prospects of applying an absolute right in a penal context', Human Rights Law Review, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 721-743. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngv024

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Mavronicola, N & Webster, E 2022, Strip searches through the lens of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment in European human rights law. in T Daems (ed.), Body Searches and Imprisonment. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mavronicola, N 2021, Institutionalized inhumanity: from torture to assassination. in R Geiß & N Melzer (eds), Oxford handbook on the international law of global security. Oxford University Press. <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-the-international-law-of-global-security-9780198827276?cc=gb&lang=en&#>

Mavronicola, N 2020, Coercive Overreach, Dilution and Diversion: Potential Dangers of Aligning Human Rights Protection with Criminal Law (Enforcement). in Coercive Human Rights: Positive Duties to Mobilise the Criminal Law under the ECHR. Hart Studies in Security and Justice, Hart Publishing.

Mavronicola, N 2020, The mythology and the reality of common law constitutional rights to bodily integrity. in M Elliott & K Hughes (eds), Common Law Constitutional Rights. 1 edn, Hart Publishing. <https://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/common-law-constitutional-rights-9781509906888.>

Mavronicola, N 2019, Torture and Othering. in Security and Human Rights. 2nd edn, Hart Publishing.

Book/Film/Article review

Mavronicola, N 2016, 'Heeding human dignity's call: Review Essay: The Age of Dignity: Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Europe, by Catherine Dupré', Legal Studies, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 725–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/lest.12151

Commissioned report

Acton, J, Anderson, P, Andres, L, Angus, M, Amor, P, Arrowsmith, J (ed.), Asmelash, H, Bartington, S (ed.), Bengtsson, F, Bhullar, L, Bloss, W, Bonet, B, Börner, S, O Bonsu, N, Bryson, JR, Burns, V, Burrows, A, Calvert, C, Cassidy, N, Cavoski, A, Chadyiwa, M, Chapman, H, Chapman, L, Cockram, M, Degendardt, L, Dickinson, D, Ding, Y, Dobrzynski, D, Dolo, M, Dora, J, Ercolani, M, Ersoy, A, Farag, H, Ferranti, E, Fisher, R, Freer, M, Goldmann, N, Goode, CE, Greenham, S, Gulati, S, Hadfield-Hill, S, Harper, G, Hegerl, G, Hillmansen, S, Holmes, J, Huang, JJ, Huser, C, Jackson, R, Jaroszweski, D, Jefferson, I, Johnson, J, Kaewunruen, S, Kelly-Akinnuoye, F, Kettles, G, Kraftl, P, Krause, S, Leckebusch, GC, Lee, R, Lockwood, B (ed.), Lohse, J, Luna Diez, E, Lynch, I (ed.), MacKenzie, R, Maddison, D, Makepeace, J, Mann, V, Marino, R, Mavronicola, N, McDonald, M, McGowan, K (ed.), Metje, N, Ng, K, Nicol, J, O'Sullivan, C, Phalkey, N, Prestwood, E, Pyatt, N, Quinn, A, Radcliffe, J (ed.), Ravi, M, Reardon, L, Reeder, T, O’Regan, P, Remedios, L, Roberts, J, Rogers, C, Rungskunroch, P, van Schaik, W, Swan, J (ed.), Thomson, I, Toft, H (ed.), Tong, J, Botello Villagrana, F, Walton, A, Wason, C (ed.), Weir, C, Wood, R & Zhong, J 2021, Addressing the climate challenge. University of Birmingham. https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00003451

Other contribution

De Londras, F, De Zordo, S, Fredman, S, Krajewska, A, Mavronicola, N, McGuinness, S, Mishtal, J, Rubio Marin, R & Scott, R 2021, Third Party Intervention by Scholars of Law and Anthropology: KC v Poland, KB v Poland, AL-B v Poland..

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in particular

Expertise

Natasa has expertise in human rights law, with particular focus on the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to life. She has conducted extensive law and policy work for international and regional human rights bodies. She served as Special Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, advising him on several thematic reports submitted to the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council, between March 2017 and July 2019 (for example, A/72/178). She has provided consultancy services to the Council of Europe on the intersection between counter-terrorism and human rights, and on policing and the prohibition of ill-treatment (see, for example, CPT (2019) 01-RT).