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Staff Profile

Dr Elena Katselli

Reader in Public International Law

  • Telephone: 0044-191-2087941
  • Address: Newcastle Law School
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
    UK
Background

 

Dr Elena Katselli is Reader in Public International Law at Newcastle Law School which she joined as a lecturer in 2005.


Elena studied Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, where she graduated in 1997. After training and qualifying as a lawyer in Cyprus and becoming member of the Cyprus Bar Council, she worked as an associate in the law firm of Michael Kyprianou & Associates during which time she worked on a number of high profile criminal cases (1997-1999). She subsequently embarked into post-graduate studies at the University of Durham obtaining a Master of Laws in International and European Legal Studies (2000) and, after being awarded a full scholarship by the Department of Law, a Doctorate in Public International Law (2005). Her doctoral thesis, under the supervision of Professor Colin Warbrick, was published by Routledge: Francis & Taylor Group (2010) and was re-printed in paper-back format in 2011. The book is entitled The Problem of Enforcement in International Law: Countermeasures, the Non-injured State and the Idea of International Community and was nominated for the Paul Guggenheim Prize 2011 (Instituut de Droit, Geneva). This work was one of a handful of books successfully nominated by Routledge in 2019 for Open Access funded by Knowledge Unlatched, enabling high-quality research to be accessed freely.

Elena's research leads international debates and helps shape international legal developments. For example, her edited book on Armed Conflict and Forcible Displacement: The Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons under International Law was cited, a month after its publication, by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the proceedings concerning the alleged deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar (2018). Her research work on the right to return has also exerted significant influence enabling the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to develop, for the first time in international legal proceedings, the argument that denial of return may constitute a crime against humanity (2019). Her work on the rights of forcibly displaced persons led to an invitation by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to join the Advisory Group of the United Nations GP20 Programme of Action on Preventing, Addressing and Resolving Internal Displacement; and to act as one of six Expert Advisors to review the report ‘Working Together Better to Prevent, Address and Find Durable Solutions to Internal Displacement: GP20 Compilation of National Practices’. This was a multi-stake holder project initiated by the United Nations Special Rapporteur Ms Cecilia Jimenez-Damary under the GP20 Plan of Action for Advancing Prevention, Protection and Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons. The report was launched in November 2020 (https://www.globalprotectioncluster.org/wp-content/uploads/GP20_web.pdf) and informed the work of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement established by the United Nations General Secretary Mr Antonio Guterres.


Elena was offered a highly prestigious Visiting Professional placement in the Prosecution Division, Office of the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court which she undertook form September 2021 to January 2022.


Elena has held visiting positions at the University of Trento, European Academy of Bolzano, University of Tuebingen, University of Queensland, University of Utrecht, while she was invited by Professor Yves Haeck and Professor Johan Vande Lanotte (former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium) as a Foreign Research Fellow at the Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, Belgium.


Elena has received invitations to review publications for the following leading journals: Refugee Survey Quarterly; International Journal of Transitional Justice (OUP); Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights; Journal of Conflict and Security Law (OUP); Inter-American and European Human Rights Journal; Environmental Law Review; Polish Yearbook of International Law; International Review of Law; Macquarie Law Journal; The International Journal of Human Rights; International Criminal Law Review.

Reviewer of book proposals, books and book chapters for Cambridge University Press and Routledge.



Research

Elena's research interests lie in the area of general international law, international human rights and international humanitarian law. Particular research areas on which Elena has published include the law on state responsibility, enforcement of international law through countermeasures, fragmentation of international law, community interests, gross human rights violations, accountability of international organisations, the legal limits of Security Council action, displacement as a result of armed conflict, property rights, joint criminal enterprise for genocide. 

Elena has also a strong interest in the nature and function of international law, responsibility to protect, international mechanisms of protection of the individual particularly within the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, the law of armed conflict, international criminal law and territorial disputes.

Recently, Elena's article on The Right of Displaced Persons to Property and to Return Home after Demopoulos was published in Human Rights Law Review (2014) 14, 701-32.

Currently, Elena is working on a research project on just satisfaction for serious human rights violations.   

Elena has supervised Doctoral and M.Phil. students in the areas of self-determination (passed viva with no corrections), the use of armed force against non-state actors (passed viva with minor corrections), and the armed conflict in Lebanon. She is currently supervising Doctoral students on responsibility to protect, assisted suicide and the protection of children.

Elena has also supervised an LL.M. dissertation on the prohibition of torture which was published in Human Rights & International Legal Discourse. 

Elena has been invited to present her research works in conferences / workshops / seminars organised by the Association of Human Rights Institutes (2014 & 2011), the International Law Association (British Branch: 2014, 2006 & 2005) and (Belgian Branch: 2007), Human Rights Centre (Gent University: 2013), Law and Conflict at Durham (2012), Institute of Cultural Diplomacy (2011), Amnesty International (2010), Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia (2010), Exeter Law School (2008), Oxford Brooks University (2008), European Society of International Law (2004), Durham Law School (2004).

Elena has been a recipient of various scholarships / awards / grants for research such as the British Academy Small Research award (2010-12), the HaSS Faculty REF Award (2010) and Durham Law School (full scholarship for Ph.D. studies); for conference organisation / participation by the Modern Law Review (2008) (award given: £3,500), International Law Association (Belgian Branch) (2007) and (British Branch ) (2014, 2006 & 2005), European Society of International Law (2004); for summer course participation by Durham Law School (2002), Institute of International Public Law and International Relations of Thessaloniki (2003 & 2001).

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

Human Rights, Criminal Law.

Postgraduate Teaching

Foundations of Public International Law, International Criminal Law, Contemporary Problems of International Law & International Dispute Settlement.

Publications