Misha Plagis is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. Her research focusses on human rights law, with a specific focus on human rights law in Africa, regional and continental courts and tribunals, and African perspectives on international law.

More information about Misha Plagis

Profile

Education and Career

Misha obtained her Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from Freie Universität Berlin (2018), as part of the Human Rights Under Pressure interdisciplinary research training group. She also holds an LL.M. in Globalisation and Law with a focus on human rights from Maastricht University (2012).

Misha was previously a post-doctoral researcher at the Asser Institute, University of Amsterdam.

In recent years, she has been a visiting scholar at the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Excellence for International Courts (iCourts) at the University of Copenhagen (2019), the Centre for Law and Society at the University of Cape Town (2019), and the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law (2018).

Prior to academia, Misha worked with a number of NGOs in India, South Africa, and the UK. In addition to her current academic activities, she is also the Associate Editor of The ACtHPR Monitor blog, which provides news, comment, and debate on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Research Areas and Interests

Misha is particularly interested in the ongoing dynamics around the developments of human rights and their interpretation by Africa’s international and regional courts and tribunals. Some of her most recent work focus on the drafting history of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the remedies regime of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court), and the interpretations of international law by domestic courts. She has also contributed to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law on jurisdiction and admissibility at the African Court Some of her current projects include resistance to human rights adjudication in Africa, and the inclusion of environmental rights and the right to development in the African human rights system.

Educational Activities

At Leiden, Misha teaches Public International Law to first and third year Bachelor law students. She also teaches Principles of International Law at Leiden University College.