Bio
Elizabeth Mavropoulou studied law in Athens (LLB). She is a Greek qualified attorney at law (non-practising). In 2014, she completed her postgraduate degree in International Law at the University of Westminster (LLM, Distinction) and in 2021 she completed her PhD degree defending her Thesis ‘Responsibility Sharing in International Refugee Law; Towards Differentiated Legal Obligations’.
Elizabeth has held visiting lecturer positions at University of Westminster and has been a tutor at the RLI MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies and convenor of the core international refugee law module. Before joining Academia full time, Elizabeth spent eight years with human rights NGO Human Rights at Sea, leading its research and advocacy work.
Elizabeth researches and writes on matters of international refugee and human rights law. Her two main streams of research have been the refugee protection and the protection of human rights at sea. Her research on international refugee law has looked at international cooperation for refugees and how international refugee law can accommodate a legal regime of binding but differentiated legal obligations of responsibility sharing.
Elizabeth’s research on human rights at sea has looked at the legal and policy challenges of ensuring compliance with human rights obligations at sea, particularly how the various regimes of international law interact in the maritime environment and the implications of such interaction for people at sea. Her research on human rights at sea has had a strong policy focus working alongside the maritime industry.
Elizabeth is one of the authors of the Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea, a soft law, NGO-led initiative that delivers clear normative guide to State decision-making on what should be done to better protect human rights at sea.
As an active member of the working group on externalisation, Elizabeth was a co-convenor of the first RLI Declaration on Externalisation and Asylum published in 2022.
In the course of her academic and NGO work Elizabeth has participated in conferences, panel events, presented in prestigious international law symposiums and conferences and has submitted expert evidence before the UK House of Lords, the European Parliament and other fora.
Elizabeth is keen to continue to provide expert guidance to policy makers with a view to influence and shape policy. She currently holds a book contract with Brill/Nijhoff.
For a list of research outputs and engagement please visit,
https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/researcher/q9592?section=researchOutputs