Dr. Aurora Voiculescu

Contact Details

Tel: 0044-(0)207-911 5000 (2696); 0044-(0)7969 574 824

Dr Aurora Voiculescu is Senior Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies and Human Rights in the Department of Advanced Legal Studies of the School of Law, University of Westminster, as well as an Associate Research Fellow of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford. Previously, she held a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship in Law, at Lincoln College, Oxford University (1999-2003). She has a PhD in Law from London School of Economics and Social Sciences, a law degree from the University of Bucharest and studied sociology and politics at Central European University, in Prague. Her research is placed in the area of human rights, in particular in connection to collective and corporate agency and responsibility. Her current work focuses on the interplay between the human rights discourse and the global market agencies such as the transnational corporations and the intergovernmental economic and financial institutions. Human rights and development is also another area of research interest. She is the author of Human Rights and Political Justice in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: Prosecuting History (Edwin Mellen Publisher, 2000) and author of various articles and book chapters on human rights and corporate social responsibility. She has also co-edited The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law, with Doreen McBarnet and Tom Campbell, (CUP 2007) and The Business of Human Rights: An Evolving Agenda for Corporate Responsibility, with Helen Yanacopulos, (Zed Books 2010).

Core research and supervision interests

Current research: a socio-legal perspective on the protection of human rights, and in particular of socio-economic rights, in relation to the activities of international market players such as the transnational corporations (TNCs).
International law norms and globalisation processes;
International legal discourse and corporate social responsibility / human rights and the new corporate accountability;
Law and social theory, with particular reference to the concept of organisational responsibility for human rights violations;
Law and development
Law and normative processes in societies that are undergoing political transition from totalitarianism and dictatorship to democracy.

Publications

MONOGRAPHS:

Human Rights and Political Justice in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: Prosecuting History. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.

EDITED VOLUMES:

The Business of Human Rights: An Evolving Agenda for Corporate Responsibility. London, New York: Zed Books, 2011 (with Helen Yanacopulos).

The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, (with Doreen McBarnet and Tom Campbell).

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS:

‘Privatising the International Human Rights Norms’, in special issue on ‘Socializing Economic Relationships: New Perspectives and Methods for Transnational Risk Regulation’. Studies in Law, Politics and Society (forthcoming special issue 2012).

‘Challenges and Innovation in the Legal Discourse: Achieving Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights’, Society and Business Review (Emerald Award for Best Paper, ADERSE Conference 2010, forthcoming 2011).

‘Corporate Social Responsibility as Human Rights and Trade Policy Tool’, in F. Bossuyt et al (eds), The Social Dimension of the European Trade Policy. Ashgate (forthcoming 2011).

‘Human Rights and the Normative Ordering of Global Capitalism’, in A. Voiculescu and H. Yanacopulos (eds.), The Business of Human Rights: An Evolving Agenda for Corporate Responsibility. London: Zed Books 2011.

‘Human Rights in Business Context: An Overview’, in A. Voiculescu and H. Yanacopulos (eds.), The Business of Human Rights: An Evolving Agenda for Corporate Responsibility. London: Zed Books 2011 (with H. Yanacopulos).

‘Perspectives and Trends of the EU Approach to Human Rights in CSR Context’, in F. Lattanzi (ed) Imprese multinazionali e diritto internazionale: obblighi e forme di responsabilità. Roma Tre Book Series. Jovene Editore, Napoli 2010.

‘From CSR for Trade to CSR through Trade: The Chronicle of a European Link Foretold?’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 14, Special Issue (2009), p743-762.

‘Human Rights Law on the Corporate Agenda’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 87, Issue 2 (2009), p. 419-32.

‘Mind the Gap: Socio-Legal Scholarship for a Runaway World’ (Editorial), Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, vol.6 no. 1 (2008).

‘The Other European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility: From the Green Paper to New Uses of Human Rights Instruments’, in McBarnet, Voiculescu and Campbell (eds.), The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp 365-399.

‘Changing Paradigms of Corporate Criminal Responsibility: Lessons for Corporate Social Responsibility’, in McBarnet, Voiculescu and Campbell (eds.), The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp399-431.

‘Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility’ in Parkinson, J. and McLeod, S. (eds.) Global Governance and the Quest for Justice, vol. II: Corporate Governance. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006.

‘From the Lomé Conventions to the Cotonou Agreement: Unorthodox Human Rights Instruments in the ACP-EU Cooperation’, Journal for Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, 4(1): 53 (2005).

‘Privatising Human Rights: Corporate Codes of Conduct Between Standards, Guidelines and the Global Compact’, in Williams, L. (ed.) International Poverty Law: An Emerging Discourse. CROP International Studies in Poverty Research Series, No. 6. London: ZedBooks Publisher, 2005.