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Dr Elena Abrusci
Senior Lecturer in Law

Summary

Elena joined Brunel in 2021 as Lecturer in Law.
Prior to that, she worked as a Policy Advisor on Digital Regulation at the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and as a Senior Research Officer at the University of Essex on the ESRC-funded 'The Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project'. Elena has also extensively worked on modern slavery and human trafficking at the Rights Lab of the University of Nottingham and at Walk Free Foundation, contributing to the 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions of the Global Slavery Index. She acted as a consultant for several UN agencies (including WHO, UNESCO and OHCHR), tech companies and governments.
Elena has an interdisciplinary background in law and politics and her research focuses on regional human rights systems and the impact of AI and technology on human rights. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Nottingham, a Master in International Relations and Law from the University of Florence and Sciences-Po Paris, a postgraduate diploma in Politics from Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa) and an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Pisa. Her PhD thesis explored the issues of judicial convergence and fragmentation in International Human Rights Law, looking at the case-law of the African, European and Inter-American human rights court and has been published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press in December 2022. 

Qualifications

  • PhD in Law, University of Nottingham (Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for Research Excellence)
  • Postgraduate Advanced Diploma in Politics, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Honor Fellow)
  • MA in International Relations, University of Florence (and diploma from Sciences-Po Paris)
  • BA in Politics and International Relations, University of Pisa

Responsibility

-Undergraduate Dissertation tutor 

-Co-leader of the research group on Human Rights, Society & Arts

-SLS Council Member for Brunel Law School

Newest selected publications

Abrusci, E. (2025) 'More transparency on regional human rights courts? What we (still) need to know to understand and access regional human rights justice'. Journal of International Dispute Settlement, 16 (3). pp. 1 - 19. ISSN: 2040-3585 Open Access Link

Journal article

Abrusci, E. (2024) 'The UK Online Safety Act, the EU Digital Services Act and online disinformation: is the right to political participation adequately protected?'. The Journal of Media Law, 16 (2). pp. 440 - 467. ISSN: 1757-7632 Open Access Link

Journal article

Abrusci, E. and Mackenzie-Gray Scott, R. (2023) 'The questionable necessity of a new human right against being subject to automated decision-making'. International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 31 (2). pp. 114 - 143. ISSN: 0967-0769 Open Access Link

Journal article

Abrusci, E. (2023) 'Judicial Convergence and Fragmentation in International Human Rights Law: THE REGIONAL SYSTEMS AND THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE'. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 10: 1316514811 ISSN 13: 9781316514818

Book

Abrusci, E. (2022) 'Judicial Convergence and Fragmentation in International Human Rights Law: The Regional Systems and the United Nations Human Rights Committee'. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISSN 10: 1-009-09096-8 ISSN 13: 978-1-316-51481-8

Book
More publications(17)