Dr Aurora Voiculescu


Dr Aurora Voiculescu is a Socio-Legal Studies and Human Rights scholar in the Department of Advanced Legal Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Westminster. Previously, Aurora was an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (2000-2012) and held a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship in Law, at Lincoln College, Oxford University (1999-2003). She also held a Visiting Professorship in International and Comparative Law at the Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2011-2014).

Aurora has a PhD in Law from London School of Economics and Social Sciences, law degrees from the University of Bucharest (LLB and LLM) and studied sociology and politics at Central European University, in Prague. She has a Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from Oxford University (DipLATHE) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2008.

Aurora’s research is situated at the intersection between the human rights discourse and global challenges such as transnational business activities, digital technology, development. The notions of agency and responsibility, as shared by law with the social discourses of business and technology, represent an important point of theoretical focus in her work. Her current research addresses the interplay between the human rights discourse and the market agencies (such as transnational corporations and intergovernmental economic and financial institutions), as well as the articulation between human rights and technology, in particular robotics and artificial intelligence. 

Aurora 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).

Aurora is currently Director of Studies to a number of PhD thesis and welcomes expressions of interest from potential PhD candidates in areas such as Business and Human Rights; Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility; Human Rights and Technology; Law and Robotics; Law and Roboethics; Law and Artificial Intelligence; Human Rights and International Economic Law; Human Rights and Bilateral Investment Treaties; Law and Social Justice; Law and Development; Socio-Legal Studies, among other areas of research interests.


Aurora’s research is situated at the intersection between the human rights discourse and global challenges such as transnational business activities, digital technology, development. The notions of agency and responsibility, as shared by law with the social discourses of business and technology, represent an important point of theoretical focus in her work. 

Her current research addresses the interplay between the human rights discourse and the market agencies (such as transnational corporations and intergovernmental economic and financial institutions), as well as the articulation between human rights and technology, in particular robotics and artificial intelligence.

Doctoral Supervision: Aurora welcomes expressions of interest in areas such as Business and Human Rights; Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility; Human Rights and Technology; Law and Robotics; Law and Roboethics; Law and Artificial Intelligence; Human Rights and International Economic Law; Human Rights and Bilateral Investment Treaties; Law and Social Justice; Socio-Legal Studies, among other areas of research interests.


  • Westminster Law and Theory Lab