NEWS
26 February 2024
We are celebrating today on humanrightsnudge! Lora Izvorova successfully defended her PhD dissertation at the University of Cambridge. We congratulate Lora on her achievement. Keep an eye out for her forthcoming book!
14 December 2023
Our work was featured in the Slovenian Delo Znanost. Veronika Fikfak gave an interview presenting the major results of the HRNUDGE project and our future plans. The interview is available in Slovenian here.
23 November 2023
Veronika Fikfak has been awarded a new ERC grant to study inequality in how victims access international human rights courts. The funding to support BREAKtheBIAS project will enable us to expand our team and to build a partnership with the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
21 November 2023
A new member has joined our team - Adarsh Prabhakaran. Adarsh is a computer scientist and he will be in charge of designing a new agent-based model to show how states behave in response to judgments of the ECtHR.
November 2023
A busy November ahead for us: Ula Kos will present her new paper in Hannover (6-8 Nov) and Berlin (30 Nov). Together with her co-author Laurence Helfer, Veronika will travel to Berlin and Copenhagen (6-8 Nov) to present their article Automating Human Rights Adjudication. Veronika will also travel to Edinburgh and Glasgow to introduce the new UK Empirical Research Network of Law and Courts (28-29 Nov).
29 October 2023
Aysel Küçüksu has got two new articles out on Danish compliance with judgments of the European Court of Human Rights: Proactive Prevention and Denmark in Strasbourg.
18 October 2023
Publication: Ula Kos had got a new article out contrasting responses by Hungary and Poland to the European Court of Human Rights decisions in rule of law human rights cases, Signalling in European Rule of Law Cases.
1 June 2023
Publication: Veronika Fikfak wrote a blog for the Constitution Unit commenting on the recent decision of the UK government to ignore interim measures imposed by the ECtHR in the context of migration. In the blog, she shows how amongst all available options the UK has chosen the most drastic one, revealing that the careful image of UK as a 'good complier' is only a myth.
2 March 2023
Podcast: Veronika appeared on Podcast series Uncovering Politics The Politics of the European Court of Human Rights recorded by the UCL School of Public Policy.
17 February 2023
Publication: Ula Kos has published a new article on Hungarian (non)compliance with ECtHR judgments. She specifically identifies new strategies that Hungary is using to avoid adverse human rights decisions. Her discoveries fill an important gap in rule of law debates relating to Hungary. Ula's paper can be found here.
16 February 2023
Publication: Katharina Luckner and Veronika Fikfak have published a new paper on how states imitate each other towards non-compliance. Using ABM modelling, we show that non-compliance is contagious and that compliance with a judgment is not an isolated event, but a result of dynamics where states look to and learn from each other.
13 January 2023
Team news: Klara Dahler-Larsen successfully defended her masters' thesis on the 'Consequences of the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe with regards to the execution of judgments.' The thesis is available on request.
1 January 2023
Team news: A new member has joined our team. Dilek Kurban who will conduct research on Turkish compliance with ECtHR judgments as part of the NUDGE project. Check out our 'Team page' for more information about Dilek.
15 November 2022
Dissemination: Aysel Küçüksu gave an interview to Democracy Reporting International providing input for their report about Danish elections and the Rule of Law. Aysel spoke about her research on Denmark's compliance with ECtHR judgments, also addressing specific areas like migration. You can read her thoughts here.
2-3 November 2022
Workshop: Veronika Fikfak gave a talk at the workshop celebrating 20 years of the UK's Human Rights Act. The programme is here. Her intervention will be published shortly on the UK Constitutional Law Association's blog.
7-8 October 2022
Workshop: Ula Kos participated at the ECPR Joint Global Politics of Law & Courts Workshop in Berlin.
5 October 2022
Publication: Aysel Küçüksu (together with Zuzanna Godzimirska and Salome Ravn) has published a new paper in the Nordic Journal of Human Rights on algorithmic decision-making in the ECtHR and need to consider victims' vulnerability. You can read the paper here.
3-4 October 2022
Conference: The NUDGE team presented at the iCourts 3.0 conference at the Royal Danish Academy. Veronika gave the keynote 'Automating Human Rights Adjudication - What Future for Human Rights', whilst Aysel Küçüksu and Ula Kos presented their paper 'Adding Nuance to Quantitative ECtHR Compliance Data through Qualitative Empirics: Implementation Networks and the Role of Civil Society Actors'.
14 September 2022
Conference: Katharina Luckner presented a paper on using ABM for modelling compliance at the ESSA Milan Conference.
8-9 September 2022
Workshop: Veronika Fikfak and Lora Izvorova gave talks at the Birmingham workshop on the Value(s) of the ECtHR. They spoke about their work on dignity in the ECtHR case law and in member states.
1-3 September 2022
Conferences: September was a busy month for all of us on NUDGE. We presented at the International Empirical Legal Studies Conference in Amsterdam. The programme is here. In more detail:
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Aysel Küçüksu and Ula Kos presented their paper 'Adding Nuance to Quantitative ECtHR Compliance Data through Qualitative Empirics: Implementation Networks and the Role of Civil Society Actors'.
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Katharina Luckner presented ‘Beyond Courts: Does (information on) Strategic Litigation Affect Climate Change Policy Attitudes?’
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Veronika Fikfak presented her paper on 'The Promises and Perils of ECHR Hudoc databases’.
In addition, Veronika also co-organised a workshop 'Connecting social practices to legal outcomes' (as part of the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences).
1 September 2022
Team news: A new member has joined our team. Thorbjørn Waal Lundsgaard who will undertake his PhD at Copenhagen University as part of the NUDGE project. Thorbjørn will focus on Nordic countries and on identifying the structures and processes that facilitate compliance and implementation of human rights decisions. Check out our 'Team page' for more information about Thorbjørn.
11 August 2022
Publication: Our paper on applications of agent-based modelling in international legal research by Katharina Luckner and Veronika Fikfak is now out at CEUR-WS. In it, we show how ABM could be used to model states' compliance practices.
10 August 2022
Publication: Our paper Language and Persuasion: Human Dignity before the European Court of Human Rights by Veronika Fikfak and Lora Izvorova is now out on open access. The paper shows that the European Court of Human Rights uses terminology of dignity strategically to compel states to change their behaviour. But do they do so? We answer the question on the case of Russia. The full paper can be found here.
14 July 2022
Publication: Our new country report on Hungary is out! In it, we show how Hungary strategically avoids confrontation with the European Court of Human Rights by taking advantage of friendly settlements and thus minimising the need to make any concrete human rights changes in its own domestic system. The report can be found here.
21 June 2022
Conference: We have been invited to present our work at the European Implementation Network Conference on Systemic Non-Implementation of ECtHR judgments in Strasbourg this week. Aysel Küçüksu and Ula Kos will be talking about our work on how NGOs and national human rights institutes play a crucial role in facilitating compliance. The programme of the event is attached. For how your NGO can help, please see our contribution here.
15 June 2022
Podcast: Aysel appeared on Podcast series Voices in Vulnerability recorded by the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Center at the University of Atlanta.
24 May 2022
Workshop: We organised a panel as part of SocSimFest to discuss the potential application of agent based modelling in international law. The programme is attached. A paper on the uses of ABM in international law will follow shortly.
13 April 2022
Symposium: Our Symposium on Bias in International Law is now openly available in the German Law Journal. You can read the introduction, along with great articles from Moshe Hirsch, Benedikt Pirker and Izabela Skoczen, Jonathan Kolieb, Runar Lie, Evangelina Nissoti, Eva van der Zee, and Ezgi Yildiz and Umut Yüksel.
12 April 2022
Publication: We have a new paper out - Language and Persuasion: Human Dignity before the European Court of Human Rights - by Veronika Fikfak and Lora Izvorova. The full paper can be found here.
22 March 2022
Publication: We have a new paper out - Sanctioning to Change State Behaviour - by Niccolò Ridi and Veronika Fikfak. The full paper can be found here.
15 March 2022
Event: Aysel and Veronika will be presenting the results of the study of Denmark's compliance with ECtHR judgments at the Danish Institute of Human Rights. A paper of the full analysis will follow shortly; a taster of our argument can be found in Aysel's piece published in the Politiken on 3 March (in Danish).
Call for Ideas - March 2022
Call for ideas: We are organising a panel as part of SocSimFest to discuss the potential application of agent based modelling in international law. We are currently seeking ideas from scholars identifying international legal questions or puzzles that would benefit from an ABM approach. Call for ideas is here.
February 2022
Collaboration: We are part of a new network entitled BRAIN, which stands for Behavioural Research Approaches in International Law Network. BRAIN brings together academics and practitioners applying behavioural approaches to international law. Our aim is to become a resource of support for scholars as well as a focal point for policy makers interested in this research. BRAIN's website is here.
February 2022
Publication: Our Symposium on Bias in International Law is coming out in the German Law Journal. We look forward to presenting it more thoroughly in February. You can read the introduction co-authored by Veronika Fikfak, Daniel Peat and Eva van der Zee here.
January 2022
Collaboration: We are collaborating with Compliance Politics and International Investment Disputes project, based at Pluricourts, University of Oslo and funded by the Research Council of Norway. Read more about the project here.
Call for papers - deadline 7 January 2022
Conference: Veronika Fikfak, together with Mikołaj Barczentewicz, are organising a new stream at this year's UK SLSA called Uncovering Silent Voices with socio-legal approaches. The conference will be held at York University in April. The call for papers can be found here, the deadline is 7 January 2022.
8 December 2021
Conference: Katharina Luckner spoke at the JURIX conference workshop on agent-based modelling about how ABM could be used in international law to map states' compliance practices.
1, 6 and 21 December 2021
Events: Veronika Fikfak spoke at the Brunel University (1 December), Hebrew University (6 December) and American-Slovenian Education Foundation (21 December) to present her latest research regarding how women judges approach the setting of damages in human rights cases and how their view differs from that of their male counterparts.
19 November 2021
Conference: Veronika Fikfak spoke at the World Slovenian Congress in Ljubljana on human rights implications of automated decision-making. The program is here.
11 and 12 November 2021
Conference: Veronika Fikfak co-chaired the American Society of International Law Research Forum. The program is here.
27 October 2021
Event: Aysel Küçüksu spoke at the PluriCourts Research Conference on Compliance Mechanisms, where she presented her article Enforcing Rights Beyond Litigation.
15 October 2021
Conference: Veronika Fikfak spoke to data protection officers at the 7th Days of Privacy and Data Security in Slovenia about the right to privacy in the digital world. The speaking fee was donated to a local charity.
23 September 2021
Event: Katharina Luckner spoke about applying agent based modelling to compliance in human rights at the ESIL IG Group on Social Sciences and International Law Workshop on Sustainable Development and the Potentials of Using Behavioural Insights. The programme and registration link is here.
21 September 2021
Event: Veronika Fikfak spoke about building a research team in a pandemic at the UK's SLSA Doing Socio-legal research in a pandemic. The registration link and programme is here.
9 September 2021
Conference: Veronika Fikfak spoke at the ESIL Annual Conference in Stockholm on Changing Local Implementation of international law. She presented initial results of the HRNUDGE project and discussed the relevance of networks for implementation of human rights norms. A video of the presentation is available in here (at 24:00).
8 September 2021
Conference: Veronika Fikfak co-organized a pre-conference workshop of the ESIL Interest Group in Social Sciences and International Law on the Promises and Perils of Social Sciences in International Law. The link to the programme is here.
21 July 2021
Online Symposium: Veronika Fikfak organised (together with Daniel Peat and Eva van der Zee) a Symposium on Limitations of the Behavioural Turn in International Law in the American Journal of International Law Unbound with contributions from Emilie Hafner-Burton, Anne van Aaken, Lauge Poulsen and Michael Waibel, Sungjoon Cho, and Doron Teichman and Eyal Zamir. The introduction to the Symposium can be found here.
Event: Veronika Fikfak and Lora Izvorova presented their paper Dignity before the European Court of Human Rights at the Pluricourts workshop on The Political and Legal Theory of International Courts and Tribunals : The Input and Output Legitimacy of International Courts. The link to the programme is here.
7-11 June 2021
Online Symposium: As part of Human Rights Nudge project, Veronika Fikfak organised a workshop in Völkerrechtsblog on Anne van Aaken and Betül Simsek's Rewarding In International Law. Read the introduction as well as interventions by Daniel Peat, Silvia Steininger, Luis Montoya, Cristina Lucena, and Matej Avbelj. A conversation with the authors is available here.
8 June 2021
Workshop: Veronika Fikfak, together with the other co-convenors of the ESIL Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals, organised a workshop on The Influence, Legacy and Future of the European Court of Human Rights in the International Legal Order. The link to the programme is here.
19 May 2021
Publication: Veronika Fikfak published a blog post on Strasbourg Observers regarding a recent proposal mooted by the European Court of Human Rights to introduce decision-making by algorithm.
13 May 2021
Event: Veronika Fikfak and Ula Kos presented the results of their recently completed country report - Compliance with ECtHR Judgments in Slovenia at University of Ljubljana Law School, Slovenia, organised by Saša Zagorc, with commentary from Ciril Ribičič, former Constitutional Court Judge and Robert Golobinek, Ministry of Justice. The recently published report can be accessed here in English.
30 April 2021
Event: Veronika Fikfak presented her article Friendly Settlement before the European Court of Human Rights at a workshop on execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The conference was organised within the framework of the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe by the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, Middlesex University, and the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. A video of the presentation is available here.
22-23 April 2021
Workshop: As part of Human Rights Nudge project, Veronika Fikfak organised a workshop (with Daniel Peat, Leiden and Eva van der Zee, Hamburg) on Behavioural Approaches to International Law. This was an inaugural event of the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law, which was co-founded by Veronika, Daniel and Eva. The link to the programme is here. Publications of the papers presented will follow in due course and will be advertised on this website. Papers will be available on open access.
20 March 2021
Interview: Aysel Küçüksu was featured by Queen Mary School of Law in their Alumni Profile, where she talked about her career path; more here.
13 March 2021
Interview: Veronika Fikfak was interviewed for the Saturday edition of the Slovenian daily Dnevnik about Human Rights Nudge project and about COVID's impact on human rights; more here (in Slovenian with paywall).
10 March 2021
Event: Veronika Fikfak and Ula Kos presented the results of their recently completed country report - Compliance with ECtHR Judgments in Slovenia at Nova University in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The online recording of the presentation is now available here, with commentary from Professors David Kosar, Jernej Letnar Černič and Saša Zagorc. The recently published report can also be accessed here in English.
