Dr Josipa Šarić

Dr Josipa Šarić joined Kent Law School as a Lecturer in Law in September 2019. As a socio-legal academic, she conducts research in the fields of international law and transitional justice from a feminist socio-legal perspective, integrating her research into her teaching to deliver a critical and transformative learning experience for students. Josipa holds qualifications in International Relations, Psychology and International Law, and a PhD in Socio-Legal Studies that she obtained at the University of Kent in 2019. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education.

Josipa’s research on the role of women in legal reform draws on interdisciplinary and feminist socio-legal approaches to examine how transitional justice processes and international legal norms are received, interpreted, and reshaped within the legal and political landscape of the post-Yugoslav space, with a particular focus on Croatia. Her work investigates the dynamic interactions between global legal frameworks—such as the Istanbul Convention—and local socio-political contexts, exploring how feminist actors engage with law to advocate for justice, while non-feminist actors mobilise to resist legal reform.

Her current research builds on her doctoral work, which was funded by the University of Kent’s 50th Anniversary Research Scholarship. This earlier project examined the concept of transformative reparations in the context of Croatia—the first former Yugoslav state to enact legislation providing reparations for survivors of wartime sexual violence. The research focused on the role played by right-wing women’s groups in the drafting of the reparation law, highlighting the complex and unexpected collaboration involved in legal reform. It argues for a contextualised approach to transformative gender justice—one that attends to the specific social and political dynamics shaping the relationship between gender, law and nationalism in post-conflict societies.

Prior to joining Kent Law School, Josipa worked at the Croatian Ministry of Justice and on international capacity building projects in the areas of international criminal law, human rights and regulatory reform (ie. War Crimes justice Project and the ICC Legal Tools Database Project).

Josipa’s research interests lie in the areas of feminist legal theory, international law and transitional justice, and transnational feminism, with a regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the post-Yugoslav space. Her recent publications examine the reception of the Istanbul Convention and the #MeToo movement in Croatia, exploring how feminist actors use legal frameworks to advocate for change, and how conservative and anti-gender movements mobilise to resist these reforms.

Josipa is currently collaborating on the Feminist Judgments in Central and Eastern Europe (FJP-CEE) project, led by Professor Silvia Suteu (EUI). This is the first comparative feminist judgments initiative in the region, reimagining judging through a feminist lens across seven civil law jurisdictions—Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Serbia. The project responds to gendered backsliding by offering both doctrinal and pedagogical interventions, and adopts an intersectional approach that includes Roma, LGBTQI+, and migrants’ rights.

My teaching interests include public international law, international human rights law, international criminal law, global governance, UK public law/constitutional law, and legal research skills.

Undergraduate

• LAWS4003 Critical Introduction to Law
• LAWS4006 Public Law
• LAWS6970/80 Research Project

Postgraduate

• LAWS8430 International Human Rights Law
• LAWS8440 Legal Aspects of Contemporary International Problems

Previously taught

Undergraduate: Criminal Law, International Law: Principles and Sources, International Humanitarian Law, Global Governance

Postgraduate: International Human Rights Law (taught at former Brussels School of International Studies), Legal Research and Writing

Josipa is interested in supervising research in the following areas:

• International law and international human rights law
• International criminal law and transitional justice
• Feminist approaches to international law
• Gender and Law & Feminist legal theory

She has successfully supervised several undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations to completion and is currently co-supervising PhD projects.

Academic Service and Professional Activity

Deputy Director of Graduate Studies – Taught Programmes

Co-Director of Centre for Critical International Law (CeCIL)

Pathway Director for LLM International Law with International Relations

Elected Member of University Senate

Editorial Board Member: Feminists@Law

Member of: Socio-Legal Studies Association (UK), Society of Legal Scholars (UK), Open Council of Europe Academic Networks (OCEAN), Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Sexuality (Kent Law School)

Accredited Mediator, Hunt ADR and Civil Mediation Council