Key details
Dr Dragana Spencer
Senior Lecturer in Law
Dragana studied Law as an undergraduate at the University of Westminster, completing her LL.M in International Law. Having been awarded a full PhD scholarship by the School of Law, University of Westminster, she completed her doctorate in International Criminal Law in 2006. In the same year, she joined the Law Department at the University of Greenwich.
Her research interests and teaching practice lie in international criminal law, public international law, human rights and public law. Specifically, her areas of expertise are in procedures and practices of international criminal courts and tribunals with a focus on defence rights and sentencing practices. She has published widely in international journals on various aspects of international and transitional criminal justice, including articles in the International Criminal Law Review, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law and the European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. In 2017 she was awarded the Peter Harris Trust Research Grant for research on language rights in war crimes trials. Dragana is fluent in Italian and Serbian and has advised governmental bodies and non-governmental agencies in the UK and abroad on implementation of procedural human rights and law reform.
She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Responsibilities within the university
Senior Lecturer in Law
School administrative and supervisory responsibilities
- Senior Lecturer in Law
- Doctoral supervisor
- Postgraduate and undergraduate dissertation supervisor
- Course Leader (Public Law (LL.B); Public International Law (LL.M))
- Level 6 Year Tutor
- Personal Tutor for Undergraduate Law students
Recognition
- Ad-hoc Reviewer, International Criminal Law Review (ICLR), Brill Nijhoff (since 2019)
- Recipient of the Peter Harris Trust Research Grant (2016-2017)
Research / Scholarly interests
- International criminal law
- International human rights
- Therapeutic jurisprudence
- Sentencing
- Treaty law
Recent publications
Spencer D.,Sounds of Atrocity Prosecutions: Intersubjective Interpreting as a Key Ingredient for Effective and Fair Trials in Multilingual and Multicultural War Crimes Courtrooms, in Fournet C. and M. Drumbl M. A. (eds.), Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions, 2024, Brill.
Spencer D., Scope and Limits of Psychiatric Evidence in International Criminal Law, in Fournet C., and Matwijkiw A. (eds.), Biolaw and International Criminal Law - Towards Interdisciplinary Synergies, 2021, pp.338 - 363, Brill Nijhoff.
Spencer D., 'Overview of Language Rights in International Criminal Law Sentencing Models', International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, Vol.31, No.2, pp. 1-18, 2018.
Spencer D., 'Legal Assumptions and Unintended Meanings before International and Hybrid Criminal Courts: Effects on Trial Proceedings and Defence Rights' in Andreopoulos George et al (eds.), The Rule of Law in an Evolving World Order – Responses to Transnational Challenges and Threats (Springer), 2018.
Radosavljevic D., 'Scope and Limits of Psychiatric Evidence in International Criminal Law', International Criminal Law Review, Vol.13, Issue 5, 2013, pp.1013-1035
Radosavljevic, D., 'Some observations on the lack of a specific diminished responsibility defence under the ICC Statute', 19 (1) European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (2011), pp. 37–55, ISSN 0982-9569/1571-8174.
Radosavljevic, D., Custom Statutes on Public Law 2010/2011 (Pearson, 2010).
Radosavljevic, D., 'Restorative Justice under the ICC Penalty Regime', 7 The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (2008), pp. 1–21. ISSN 15691853.
Radosavljevic, D. 'Mala captus bene detentus and the right to challenge the legality of arrests under the ICC Statute', 1 Liverpool Law Review (2008). ISSN 0144-9326.
Radosavljevic, D., 'An overview of the ICC complementarity regime', 3 (10) Review of International Law and Politics (2007), pp. 96–114. ISSN 1305-5208.
Presentations
2022 – ‘Linguistic intersubjectivity as key ingredient for effective interpreting in multilingual and multicultural courtrooms', The Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions University of Exeter, UK.
2021 – ‘Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances as a Crime Against Humanity in International Criminal Law Leading to State Responsibility to Investigate and Prosecute’, OSCE, Presence in Albania, Tirana.
2020 – ‘War crimes and memory in vandalised environments’, University of the Arts London.
2017 - 'Right to 'competent' interpretation in international criminal law proceedings: What role do judges play?', University of Oslo, Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, October 2017.
2017 - 'Language problems and language rights in international criminal law', Law and Language International Symposium, University of Greenwich, June 2017.
2016 - 'Roundtable: The Rule of Law in an Era of Change', The American Society of Criminology, November 2016, New Orleans, USA.
2016 - 'Doing Time for War Crime: A study of the punishment phase of the international criminal process', International Studies Association-Comparative Interdisciplinary Studies, June 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2016 - 'Interpreting and Translation in International Criminal Law', Language and Sustainable Development Goals, UN Symposium, April 2016, New York, USA.
2014 - 'Legal Assumptions and Unintended Meanings before International Criminal Courts: Effects on Trial Proceedings and Defence Rights', The Rule of Law in an Era of Change; Security, Social Justice and Inclusive Governance, June 2014, Athens, Greece
2013 - 'The right to rehabilitation in international criminal law and the role of the mental health professionals in the post-conflict reconciliation process,' IALMH, July 2013, Amsterdam.
2012 - 'Right to rehabilitation of convicted war criminals as means of post-conflict social reparation and reconciliation', 2012 International Conference - Global Perspectives on Justice, Security and Human Rights, July 2012, New York, USA.
2011 - 'Scope, limits and appropriateness of psychiatric testimony in international criminal law', XXXIInd International Congress on Law and Mental Health, July 2011, Berlin, Germany.
2009 - 'Lack of a Diminished Responsibility Defence under the International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute and Contemporary Human Rights Issues', XXXIst International Congress on Law and Mental Health", June 2009, New York, USA.
2008 – 'Restorative Justice under the International Criminal Court Complementarity Model', Justice and Policing in Diverse Societies, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June, 2008.