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Photo: Simon Mensing

Dr. Sergii Masol

Dr. Sergii Masol is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cologne, sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His research project is called ‘The Divided East in a Divided Europe: A Comparison of European Union, Ukrainian and Russian Approaches to International Criminal Law’.

Dr. Masol obtained his doctorate in law from the European University Institute in Florence. His doctoral thesis examined the approaches of international criminal tribunals to the interpretation and application of the definitions of international crimes in light of human rights law. Dr. Masol also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Human Rights Law from Lund University.

Dr. Masol was a visiting researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He gave guest lectures at Lund University and the University of Milan. In addition, Dr. Masol was an assistant editor at the European Journal of International Law, as well as a senior editor and the head of the international law section at the European Journal of Legal Studies. Moreover, he worked as a research assistant at the European University Institute in Florence.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Masol was a volunteer at Amnesty International and completed internships at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund.

Areas of research

  • Comparative international law

  • International criminal law

  • Human rights

  • Treaty interpretation

Memberships

  • European Society of International Law (since 2022)

Past professional positions

  • Junior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (Austria), 2021
  • Visiting researcher at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), 2019
  • Research assistant at the European University Institute, Florence (Italy), 2015-2018
  • Intern at the International Criminal Court, The Hague (Netherlands), 2013
  • Trainee at the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg (France), 2012-2013
  • Intern at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva (Switzerland), 2012
  • Research assistant (intern) at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund (Sweden), 2011

Work for scholarly journals

  • European Journal of International Law (Assistant Editor), 2015-2016
  • European Journal of Legal Studies (Head of the International Law Section), 2017-2018
  • European Journal of Legal Studies (Senior Editor), 2015-2018
  • European Journal of Legal Studies (Editor), 2014-2015

 Current research project

The research project ‘The Divided East in a Divided Europe: A Comparison of European Union, Ukrainian and Russian Approaches to International Criminal Law’ is informed by the theoretical framework of comparative international law. It aims to explore the European tradition in international criminal law. Given the deep disagreement between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine as to the nature of the armed conflict and legal qualification of conflict-related crimes in Ukraine, it is necessary to examine these actors’ divergent understandings of international criminal law. Filling the gap in the anglophone academic literature, the project centres predominantly on the Russian and Ukrainian national legal practices and legal scholarship. It analyses how both have developed over time and how they can be compared with each other and with the European Union’s grand narrative of progress in international criminal law.

Publications

Contact

Dr. Sergii Masol
Guest Researcher

Academy for European Human Rights Protection

Kerpener Str. 30
50937 Köln

Telephone +49 (0) 221 470 76021
E-mail smasol(at)uni-koeln.de