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VIRGINIA MANTOUVALOU LLB (Athens), LLM in Human Rights (LSE), PhD (LSE) Lecturer in Law; Co-Director of the UCL Institute for Human Rights contact details: Tel: +44 (0)20 3108 5055 | internal: x55055 Email: v.mantouvalou@ucl.ac.uk Administrator: Liz Milner +44 (0)20 7679 4556 | internal: x24556 |
Profile
Virginia Mantouvalou is Co-Director of the UCL Institute for Human Rights and Lecturer in Law. She is also joint editor of Current Legal Problems.
Virginia is the author of Debating Social Rights (with Conor Gearty, Hart, 2011), as well as articles, book chapters and essays in human rights, labour law and European law. In 2010 Virginia was Dean’s Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC. Before joining UCL, she taught at the University of Leicester and the London School of Economics.
Virginia holds a PhD in Law from the London School of Economics, an LLM in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and an LLB from the University of Athens. She has received several scholarships and awards for her research, including an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant to work on theoretical aspects of social and labour rights. Virginia has also worked as a consultant for projects of the International Labour Organisation and the Equal Rights Trust, and is a collaborator of FLOOR (the Financial Assistance, Land Policy and Global Social Rights project) at Bielefeld University in Germany.
Research
Virginia’s main research interests are in human rights, labour law and European law. She works on theoretical and legal aspects of social and labour rights, the right to work, privacy, the rights of undocumented migrants, domestic labour, modern slavery and the interplay between human rights and labour law.
Publications
Books:
- 2011: Debating Social Rights (with Conor Gearty), Hart Publishing
- Reviews: (2012) 75 Modern Law Review 685-690; (2012) European Human Rights Law Review 475-478; Times Higher Education, 3 November 2011; (2012) Public Law 370-374.
Journal articles:
- 2013: ‘Redfearn v UK: Political Association and Dismissal’ (with Hugh Collins), Modern Law Review (7,500 words, forthcoming)
- 2013: ‘Labour Rights in the European Convention on Human Rights: An Intellectual Justification for an Integrated Approach to Interpretation’, 13 Human Rights Law Review 27 pages
- 2013: ‘Workers Without Rights as Citizens at the Margins’, 16 Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, special issue on Marginal Citizenship, forthcoming
- 2012: ‘Human Rights for Precarious Workers: The Legislative Precariousness of Domestic Labour’, 34 Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 133-166
- 2012: ‘Are Labour Rights Human Rights?’, 3 European Labour Law Journal 151-172
- 2012: ‘The Many Faces of Slavery: The Example of Domestic Work’, Summer/Autumn Global Dialogue, special issue on ‘Slavery Today ’
- 2012: ‘The ILO Convention on Domestic Workers: From the Shadows to the Light’, (with Einat Albin), 41 Industrial Law Journal, 67-78.
- 2010: ‘Modern Slavery: The UK Response’ 39 Industrial Law Journal 425-431
- 2009: ‘N v UK: No Duty to Rescue the Nearby Needy?’ 72 Modern Law Review 815-828
- 2009: ‘Private Life and Dismissal: Pay v UK’ (with Hugh Collins) 38 Industrial Law Journal 133-138
- 2008: ‘Human Rights and Unfair Dismissal: Private Acts in Public Spaces’ 71 Modern Law Review 912-939
- 2006: ‘Servitude and Forced Labour in the 21st Century: The Human Rights of Domestic Workers’ 35 Industrial Law Journal 395-414
- 2006: 'Migrant Workers and Modern Slavery’ Yearbook of Immigration and Refugee Law, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner in Human Rights (in Greek) 397-419
- 2005: ‘Work and Private Life: Sidabras and Dziautas v Lithuania’ 30 European Law Review 573-585
Book chapters:
- 2013: ‘Slavery, Servitude, Forced and Compulsory Labour in the European Convention on Human Rights’, in The European Convention on Human Rights and the Employment Relation, Dorssemont, Lorcher, Schomann (eds), Hart Publishing, forthcoming
- 2013: ‘The Social and Labour Rights of Migrants in International Law’ (with Bernard Ryan), in Migration and Human Rights, Rubio-Marin (ed), Oxford University Press, forthcoming
- 2011: ‘Work and the European Convention on Human Rights: A Dynamic Relationship in Need of Justification’ in The European Convention on Human Rights: A Living and Dynamic Instrument - Liber Amicorum in Honour of Judge Rozakis, D Spielmann (ed), Bruylant, 377-397
- 2010: ‘Is There a Human Right not to Be a Trade Union Member?’ in Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation, T Novitz, C Fenwick (eds), Hart Publishing, 439-462
- 2010: ‘The Council of Europe and the Protection of Human Rights: A System in Need of Reform’, (with Panayotis Voyatzis), in Research Handbook on International Human Rights Law, S Joseph, A McBeth (eds), Edward Elgar Publishing, 326-352.
Policy Reports
- 2011: ‘Study on Labour Inspection Sanctions and Remedies: The Case of the United Kingdom’, International Labour Organisation, Labour Administration and Inspection Programme, Geneva
Work in progress:
- 'The Right to Work and the Right Not to Be Exploited of Undocumented Migrants’
- ‘Freedom Under Threat: The UK Domestic Workers’ Visa’
- ‘Democratic Institutions of Voice at Work’
Current Teaching
Undergraduate
Employment Law
The European Union and Human Rights Law
Jurisprudence
Graduate
European Union and Human Rights (convenor)
Human Rights at Work (convenor)
Theory and Practice of the ECHR (convenor)
PhD Supervision
Virginia Mantouvalou welcomes approaches for supervision from prospective PhD students. She is currently supervising:
- Eleni Frantziou
- Maria Kyprianou
- Inga Thiemann

