Edinburgh Law School welcomes new staff in the first semester of the new academic year

As we continue on with the first semester of the new academic year, Edinburgh Law School is delighted to welcome new members to its academic and professional services cohort. 

Salvesen Chair of European Institutions and Head of School, Professor Jo Shaw, said: “I am delighted to welcome this group of new colleagues to our Law School. Each and every one of them will contribute in important ways to the development of our work in research and education, including by supporting that work by providing invaluable professional services. At the same time, we continue to want to make our Law School a destination of choice as much for staff as for students, so we are delighted that they have chosen to come and work with us. As ever, of course, it is exciting to meet new colleagues, and to open new lines of work with them.”

Read more about the staff joining us in this article. 

Academic Staff

Dr Rowena Azada-Palacios is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the project ‘Reversing the Gaze’. Her prior research has been in the areas of political philosophy, decoloniality, and the intersection of critical philosophical thought and education. She has taught philosophy and education at Ateneo de Manila University, London Metropolitan University, University College London, and NYU London. Her monograph, ‘Postcolonial Education and National Identity’ (Bloomsbury Academic), is based on the doctoral research that she completed at University College London.
Learn more about Dr Azada-Palacios

Eleftheria (Elie) Asimakopoulou is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow contributing to the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Taming the Dark Energy of EU Law’ led by Professor Niamh Nic Shuibhne. Elie’s research focuses on EU external relations law and EU/UK constitutional law. A common theme in her work is the relationship between legal orders and systems. She is currently examining the role of institutional actors and constitutional principles in shaping the EU’s evolving presence in international law. Her doctoral thesis explored the distinct role of EU Member States in international investment law, drawing on comparative international law and EU constitutional perspectives. 
Learn more about Elie

Dr Grigoris Bacharis is a lecturer in Private Law and an Academic Year Lead for third-year LLB students. After practising law in Greece and completing a traineeship at the European Commission, Grigoris earned his PhD at the European University Institute, with a focus on competition damages and tort law. Before joining the University of Edinburgh, he worked as a lawyer in Greece, as a trainee at the European Commission, and as a Fellow in Law at LSE Law School. Grigoris' research interests include private law, competition law, and EU law, and he is working on a book project based on his doctoral thesis. 
Learn more about Dr Bacharis

Jessica Cleary is a Teaching Fellow in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Jessica Cleary joined the Law School in September 2024. She predominately supports postgraduate teaching, assessments and supervision, with particular interests in Transformative Justice and Gender-Informed Justice. Alongside this post she is completing her ESRC funded PhD with the Scottish Centre of Criminal Justice Research. Her thesis examines whether the gender-specific needs of women serving a community sentence are catered for within national community justice policies and community justice partners’ practices across Scotland. 
Learn more about Jessica

Lisa Cowan is a Teaching Fellow in Legal History. A former litigator, Lisa returned to the University of Edinburgh to pursue doctoral research in 2021. Having taught for several years in both the Law School and the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, she joins the staff now in her new role. 
Learn more about Lisa

Agata Daszko is an Early Career Fellow in International Economic Law. Prior to joining the Law School, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen, where she is also completing her PhD thesis on the environmental impact assessments in international investment law and arbitration. Her research interests lie in investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), interlinkages between international investment law and public international law, and investment arbitration under State contracts. She has previously held visiting researcher positions at the University of Bologna (March-April 2023) and Kyoto University (March-May 2024). 
Learn more about Agata

Moosa Izzat is a PA-X Peace Agreement Analyst at PeaceRep. His work supports the development of the PA-X Peace Agreement Database through investigating peace processes and analysing and coding agreements. Moosa holds a BA LLB (Hons) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, India and is completing his LLM in Human Rights at Edinburgh Law School. His research areas include human rights and conflict resolution.
Learn more about Moosa

Dr Nora Jaber is a lecturer in Law in the Globalised Muslim World, based at Edinburgh Law School and the Al-Waleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World. Before joining Edinburgh, Nora was a lecturer in law at the University of Exeter. She obtained her PhD in Law from King’s College London and her LLM from the London School of Economics. Nora’s research intersects law, feminist theory, and political economy. Her work primarily examines the role and limitations of international law in achieving justice in non-Western contexts, with a focus on gender justice in the Arab and Islamic world. More broadly, Nora’s work examines the relationship between law and social justice and is interested in how law strengthens and limits political struggles for justice.
Learn more about Dr Jaber

Dr Morshed Mannan is a Lecturer in Global Law and Digital Technology. He was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European Institute in Florence; he completed his PhD and LLM at Leiden Law School and his LLB (Hons) at the University of Warwick. He has also practised law in his native Bangladesh, having been enrolled as an Advocate by the Bangladesh Bar Council and called to the Bar in England and Wales. 
Learn more about Dr Mannan [link when available]

Dr Ana Morales-Gomez recently re-joined the school as a Research Fellow in Criminology. Before this, she worked at the University of Sheffield and held research roles at the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research and the University of Manchester. She is interested in quantitative criminology and the use of statistical methods to understand inequalities in the justice system.  She is looking forward to contributing to new projects and collaborating with her colleagues at the School of Law.
Learn more about Dr Morales-Gomez

Tom Morley is a PA-X Peace Agreement Analyst at PeaceRep. His work supports the development of the PA-X Peace Agreement Database through investigating peace processes and analysing and coding agreements. Tom holds an MA Hons in Arabic and International Relations from the University of St Andrews and is completing an LLM in Human Rights at Edinburgh Law School. He enjoys researching human rights, conflict and powersharing in the Middle East and North Africa.
Learn more about Tom

Dr Rozemarijn Roland Holst is a Lecturer in International Environmental Law. She teaches and researches in the fields of international law of the sea, environmental law, and climate change law. Her research themes include the interaction between law, science and new technology, global commons, international law and critical political economy, international organisations law, and international dispute settlement. She currently holds a Leverhulme Research Project Grant for the project ‘The Making and Unmaking of Global Commons by International Organisations’.
Learn more about Dr Roland Holst

Dr Nikolaos (Nikolas) Vagdoutis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Edinburgh Law School, contributing to the project ‘Reversing the Gaze’. His current research focuses on the evolution of the EU economic constitution, with special emphasis on the EU cohesion policy. Prior to joining Edinburgh Law School, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, exploring the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the EU legal order. He had also conducted post-doctoral research at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, focusing on Greek constitutional theory. His main research interests lie in constitutional and EU law, in legal and political theory.
Learn more about Dr Vagdoutis

Marsaili Van Looy is a Research Fellow for the CO2RE Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, with a focus on the UK regulatory regime for greenhouse gas removals. Her independent research interests include carbon capture and storage law of the UK and European Union. Prior to joining Edinburgh Law School, Marsaili worked as a construction law solicitor.
Learn more about Marsaili

Professional Staff

Lucie Bennett is a Postgraduate Research Administrative Assistant. She graduated from the University of St Andrews and has worked at Heriot-Watt University. Lucie loves anything to do with plants, animals, and books. 

Elizabeth Darby is a Research Support Assistant at Edinburgh Law School. Elizabeth moved to Edinburgh for a prior role as UK & International support within the H&M Group. As a graduate of Norwich University of the Arts in Commercial Photography, she previously worked freelance within the photographic industry. She looks forward to supporting the current research projects and those to come within the Law college.

Ila Mukharji is a Research Support Assistant at Edinburgh Law School. After graduating with bachelor of Engineering in 2017 Ila has later earned a Postgraduate Diploma in business Administration. She began her professional journey at Genpact as Process developer and then became a reference data Analyst in Deutsche Bank India, where she has been responsible for account opening and maintenance activities for major global clients over the past three years. She is now joining the Law school as research Support Assistant. Ila enjoys travelling, listening to music, and she is a classical trained dancer.

Michelle Reid is a Business Operations and Finance Officer at Edinburgh Law School. After studying Business Information Management at university, she went on to work in finance. Prior to joining the Law School, she worked at Energy Saving Trust as the Operations Officer for Home Energy Scotland, where she was responsible for the budgets for the programme. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and watching rugby.