Marina Aksenova

Marina Aksenova specializes in international and comparative criminal law. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of international (criminal) justice and aesthetics. Prof. Aksenova coordinates Art and International Justice Initiative (ARTIJ), which has as its objective integration of art into the study and teaching of international law. Her forthcoming book is Art, Aesthetics and International Justice (Routledge, 2025). The central goal of the book and the initiative is to merge creativity and practice of international justice and to infuse it with legal imagination. Her other ongoing research projects include corporate accountability for weapons trade as well as citizenship and belonging. She publishes in the fields of human rights law, terrorism and security studies, public international law, transitional justice, and criminology. 

Prof. Aksenova’s PhD thesis, defended in 2014, won the annual Mauro Cappelletti award at the European University Institute in Florence. The monograph Complicity in International Criminal Law (Hart, 2016) based on the thesis was later awarded Paul Guggenheim award as a work of outstanding importance and quality in the field of international law. 

Prof. Aksenova is admitted to the list of assistants to defence counsel and the list of experts at the ICC. She is qualified to practice law and served for several years in professional legal capacity at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (registry, defence teams of Ramush Haradinaj and Milorad Trbić) and as an associate in the arbitration department of White and Case LLC. She collaborated with civil society actors, such as the Colombian Commission of Jurists, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, and Stanford Law School Clinic.

Prof. Aksenova held visiting and research positions at iCourts (Centre of Excellence for International Courts) at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Università degli studi Firenze (Italy), and Central European University (Hungary). 

At IE University, Prof. Aksenova teaches courses on comparative and international criminal law as well as critical approaches to public international law.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Associate Professor of International and Comparative Criminal Law, IE University, September 2024 - Present

• Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Criminal Law, IE University, September 2017-  2024

•  iCourts Centre for Excellence, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Postdoctoral fellow, September 2014 - September 2017 

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

• PhD in Law, European University Institute (Florence, Italy), 2010 - 2014

• MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK), 2009 - 2010

• LLM in Public International Law, University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2004 - 2005

• Bachelor in Law (hons) International University (Moscow, Russia), 2000 - 2004

CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

• Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Cambodia), Researcher, Trial Chamber, June 2011 - September 2011

• White & Case, LLC (Moscow, Russia), Associate, Arbitration and Litigation Department, September 2007 - August 2009

• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (The Hague, Netherlands), Legal Assistant, Defense, September 2005 - May 2007

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)

4- Quality Education

10- Reduced Inequalities

16- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions