SJD Program

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Kushagr Bakshi is a Michigan International and Comparative Law Scholar and an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School, where he completed his LLM Degree in 2022. During the LLM Program, Kushagr worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Catharine MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, and as a Faculty Research Assistant at the Michigan Law Library. He also served on the board of the American Constitutional Law Society and as an Associate Editor for the Michigan Journal of International Law and the Michigan Journal of Law and Society.

Kushagr obtained his first degree in law from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. While in law school, he worked as a teaching assistant for Jurisprudence for two years and served as an Editor for the Journal of Indian Law and Society. Prior to coming to Michigan Law, Kushagr spent two years as an Associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions team of a law firm in India.

His current research focuses on the theory and constitutional structures which define Indian federalism. He is currently serving as an Executive Legal Content Editor for the Michigan Journal of Law and Society.

Fields of Academic Interest

Comparative Constitutional Law, Legal History, Legal and Political Theory and International Law. Kushagr is also interested in interdisciplinary approaches to legal research which combine methods and insights from disciplines such as anthropology, history and political science to the analysis of legal structures.

Dissertation Project

Kushagr’s dissertation project relates to recent constitutional changes in India which abrogated the autonomous status of Kashmir. Using Kashmir as an exemplar of an asymmetrically federal arrangement, the project looks to reexamine the political and constitutional theory which undergirds Indian federalism. Through a comparative analysis of similar structures in other countries, Kushagr’s dissertation aims to understand the role of federal structures in strengthening democratic decision making in plural societies.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Daniel Halberstam, Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School- Committee Chair.

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2022)
• West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (BA LLB, 2019)

Languages

English, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri

Contact

[email protected] 

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Debora is currently pursuing an SJD at the University of Michigan Law School, where she also completed her LLM in 2025 as a Michigan International and Comparative Law Scholar. Debora completed her LLB in Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia in 2022, where she majored in business law with a minor in criminal law.

During her LLM year, Debora was awarded the Myint Zan LLM Prize 2025 for her interdisciplinary interests and commitment to social justice. Debora also represented the Law School as a Salzburg Cutler Fellow, where she presented her doctoral dissertation research plan. Debora is a member of Phi Delta Phi International and is an Editor for the Michigan Journal of International Law (MJIL).

Before coming to Michigan Law, Debora has been a long-term feminist activist in Indonesia and worked as a lawyer in Indonesia, focusing on corporate and project finance, labor, construction, and capital markets.

Fields of Academic Interest

Debora’s academic interests include international human rights law, feminist legal theory, international law and social change, and women’s rights. She is particularly drawn to the ways in which international law can serve as a tool for advancing gender equality and initiating bottom-up social change through the efforts of activists and communities around the world. Debora is deeply interested in the relationship between law and society, and how legal systems both reflect and shape lived experiences. Her interdisciplinary approach incorporates insights from history, psychology, anthropology, and sociology, allowing her to analyze legal phenomena qualitatively through both empirical and normative lenses.

Dissertation Project

Debora’s dissertation project examines how international rape law, particularly the framework established under CEDAW, is operationalized in Southeast Asia. Through comparative case studies of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the research explores the gap between international legal standards and domestic enforcement, focusing on issues such as general rape laws, marital rape, “marry-your-rapist” laws, and rape culture. It investigates how legal pluralism, cultural norms, and institutional weaknesses shape compliance, using both empirical fieldwork and normative analysis.

The study ultimately aims to propose culturally grounded strategies to strengthen international law as a tool for meaningful national reform.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Karima Bennoune, Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair
• Prof. Kristina B. Daugirdas, Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law
• Prof. J. Christopher McCrudden, Professor of Human Rights and Equality Law, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast; L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2025)
• Universitas Gadjah Mada (LLB, 2022)

Languages

English, Indonesian

Contact

[email protected] 

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Lukáš is an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School. Before his SJD studies, he studied at Charles University in the Czech Republic where he received his PhD in taxation and financial markets regulation.

In his research, Lukáš deals with issues concerning taxation and financial markets regulation. He received the Hlávka Foundation award for the best law school student and Bolzano Prize from the rector of Charles University for his dissertation, Hybrid Mismatches after the ATAD.

Since 2021, Lukáš has been appointed as a tax counselor to the OECD on behalf of the Czech Republic. At the OECD, Lukáš has covered many OECD tax initiatives on technical and political levels. During his posting, Lukáš joined the OECD/G20 Two Pillars Project negotiations at the Task Force on the Digital Economy (Pillar 1), Working Party 11 (on Aggressive Tax Planning, Pillar 2), and the Inclusive Framework on BEPS meetings as a national delegate. Due to this work, Lukáš also took part in the negotiations of the EU Pillar 2 Directive at the EU by representing his country at the Working Party on Technical Questions – responsible for negotiating the text of the draft directive – and helped the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU team in 2022 during the successful negotiations of the political agreement of the Council of the EU regarding this directive. Lukáš is now working with his colleagues on the implementation of Pillar 2 into national law as well as taking part in the negotiations at the EU and the OECD regarding the implementation work.

Besides his work in Paris and Brussels, Lukáš also has worked at the Czech Ministry of Finance and the Czech National Bank. In the Ministry of Finance, he worked on transposition of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive that implemented several actions from the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project. While working for the Czech National Bank, Lukáš was part of a team supervising investment firms and investment funds in the Czech Republic in accordance with EU law and national legislation.

Fields of Academic Interest

• Taxation:
  • International taxation (particularly Pillar 1 and 2, hybrid mismatches, CFC rules, GAARs)
  • Income taxation (particularly division between labor and capital taxation and taxation of employees’ income and independent contractors’ income)
     
• EU financial markets regulation:
  • MiFID II/MiFIR including algorithmic trading and high frequency trading regulation
  • AIFMD

Dissertation Project

Lukáš’s dissertation project analyzes the OECD/G20 Pillar Two Project and its interaction with other rules of international taxation and initiatives with the goal to achieve an international tax system that is more efficient and just.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School - Committee Chair
• Prof. Petr Janský, Associate Professor, Head of Department of European Economic Integration and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University

Education

• PhD, Charles University, Czech Republic, 2020
• Master in Law (eq. JD), Charles University, Czech Republic, 2016

Languages

Czech (native), English (professional), French (intermediary)

Contact

[email protected]

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Erick Guapizaca Jiménez is a third-year SJD candidate at the University of Michigan Law School and a Lecturer in the online law program at the Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. He previously clerked at the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, coordinated arbitral proceedings at the Center of International Arbitration of the Chamber of Industries and Production of Ecuador, and served as a fellow at the UN International Law Commission. 

He is currently an Associate Editor at Opinio Juris, a leading international law blog series, and previously served as Managing Editor of the Michigan Journal of International Law, where he received an award for outstanding service. Erick served as Co-Chair for the 10th edition and Chair of the 11th edition of the Junior Scholars Conference, one of the leading academic conferences in the United States.

Erick has presented his work before a range of academic audiences, including the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Midyear Meeting, the Junior International Law Scholars Association (JILSA) Workshop, the American Society of International Law (ASIL) International Economic Law Interest Group Biennial Conference, and the Doctoral Week at Sciences Po (Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris). He has also contributed to American Journal of International Law Unbound (AJIL Unbound), Decisions, Verfassungsblog, and Völkerrechtsblog.

Born in Ecuador, Erick has lived in Chile and the United States, with shorter academic and research stays in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Outside academia, he is passionate about nature, often hiking in the Andes or exploring the Amazon. He also has a deep interest in Latin American horror literature, Andean gothic fiction, and LGBTIQ narratives, which inform his broader engagement with themes of marginality, resistance, and identity.

Fields of Academic Interest

Erick’s research centers on the legal dimensions of the global energy transition and the rise of artificial intelligence governance, with particular emphasis on how these transformations affect Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Global South. He examines how emerging regulatory frameworks tied to decarbonization and digitalization reshape access to land, natural resources, and economic participation. His work focuses on the role of property, administrative law, and global economic regulation in producing new forms of exclusion, marginalization, and resistance in these contexts.

Dissertation Project

Erick’s dissertation investigates how Latin American states systematically distort and deny the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent through domestic legal frameworks, particularly in the context of legislative processes and investment-related extractive projects. Grounded in public law theory and the principle of self-determination, the project argues that FPIC has been narrowed through legal mechanisms in administrative, property, and legislative domains, reducing Indigenous participation to a procedural formality. Drawing on original empirical data from 16 Latin American countries and informed by the theory of the “functioning Indigenous country,” the dissertation advances a doctrinal-functional critique of existing consultation regimes. It reframes Indigenous consent as a legal condition for democratic legitimacy and constitutional validity, and proposes institutional reforms to integrate FPIC into pluralistic governance without undermining the rule of law, representative democracy, or separation of powers.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Julian Arato, Professor of Law and Director, Program on Law and the Global Economy, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair
• Prof. Steven R. Ratner , Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; Director, University of Michigan Donia Human Rights Center
• Prof. Lucas Lixinski, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney
• Prof. Sergio Puig,  Professor and Joint Chair at the Department of Law and the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute.

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2023)
• Diploma in Constitutional Law (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Sede Ecuador, 2022)
• Diploma in Human Rights (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Sede Ecuador, 2021)
• Diploma in Higher Education (Universidad del Azuay, 2020)
• Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Bachelor of law, 2019)

Languages

Spanish (native), English (professional)

Contact

[email protected]

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PK is a Michigan International and Comparative Law Scholar and an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School.

PK is a Management Graduate, Lawyer and Corporate Secretary. He has more than two decades of rich experience in the areas of Governance, Disclosure & Reporting, Risk Management, Ethics & Compliance and Stakeholder Management.

In India, PK has been associated with iconic companies that have set benchmarks in Corporate Governance (the Tata Group and Infosys). He currently serves as the Corporate Secretary and Chief Legal Officer (Corporate & Compliance) of Tata Steel. PK’s most significant responsibilities include advising the Board on Governance and ensuring that the Members of the Board are ably equipped with resources to discharge their fiduciary duties and corporate governance practices. PK is also responsible for the Compliance Function of Tata Steel and the legal requirements of the company in the areas of Governance, Antitrust, Corporate Actions and New Ventures. He also has oversight responsibility of the legal and governance matters of Tata Steel’s investment in Subsidiaries, Joint Ventures and Associate Companies in India and Overseas. 

Prior to joining the Tata Group, PK served as the Corporate Secretary and Chief Risk & Compliance Officer of Infosys. At Infosys, he was responsible for the Governance, Risk and Compliance function (including compliance with SEC Rules and Regulations).

PK has and continues to be on various committees of the Regulatory, Industry and Professional Bodies that frame the governance principles for Corporates in India. PK was also on the committee that framed guidelines on Investor Relations for Central Public-Sector Enterprises in India.

Fields of Academic Interest 

PK teaches and researches on Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Securities Regulation. He is a Visiting Faculty at the National Law School of India University and offers a Seminar Paper on Corporate Governance and Practice. He is also an Adjunct Faculty at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, an institution set up under the aegis of The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, for providing astute and credible intellectual leadership in corporate regulation, governance and running sustainable businesses.

Dissertation Project 

Corporate Governance is one of the most contemporary topics of our times and has lately generated enormous interest in India. Corporate Governance is a key element in improving economic efficiency and growth as well as enhancing investors’ confidence. Regulators in India are becoming very proactive in ensuring that organizations are well governed.

India has witnessed two decades of governance reforms. The country is now faced with the challenge of restructuring existing mechanisms for greater efficiency and creating an investment-friendly environment. PK views India’s governance model to be at a reflection point, and at this juncture, the key question he intends to address through his research is whether the existing governance mechanisms and the legal and regulatory frameworks in India, are (a) sufficient to meet internationally accepted corporate governance standards, attract overseas investment, and incite economic growth; and (b) sufficient to address the governance problems unique to India, i.e. disciplining the controlling shareholder and protecting minority interests, as against disciplining the management (as is the case in many developed countries).

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Vikramaditya S. Khanna, William W. Cook Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School - Committee Chair
• Prof. Adam C. Pritchard, Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
• Prof. Umakanth Varottil, Associate Professor, The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law

Education

• Master of Laws (Corporate Governance and Practice), Stanford University
• Master of Business Administration, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Master of Business Laws, National Law School of India University
• Bachelor of Laws, Bangalore University
• Bachelor of Commerce (Hons), Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
• Associate Member of ICSI, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India

Languages

English (Professional). Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi (Native)

Contact

[email protected]

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June’s research focuses on corporate compliance and violations, corporate governance, and law and economics. Inspired by his academic and professional background in business and law, he pursues interdisciplinary research at the intersection of law and the social sciences. Drawing on organizational theories from sociology, his research provides a unique and insightful understanding of the legal system and corporate practice.

After completing his Juris Doctor degree and gaining admission to the bar in South Korea, he served in dual capacities as a journalist and an attorney, roles in which he delved into critical legal issues surrounding corporate crimes and political corruption. This immersive professional experience ignited his research interest in these areas.

Fields of academic interest: Corporate and securities law, law and social sciences, and white-collar crime

Dissertation project

June’s dissertation project examines the relationship between the institutional environment and corporate misconduct. Drawing on organizational theories, he seeks to understand the dynamics of why organizations commit misconduct and under what circumstances they shift towards compliance. For the empirical analyses, he uses a blend of machine collected data and hand collected data on court trials. By employing panel regression analyses, this project aims to shed light on the mechanisms that contribute to corporate recidivism as well as the factors that influence the effectiveness of deterrent measures.

Doctoral committee

• Prof. Vikramaditya S. Khanna, William W. Cook Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair
• Prof. Geeyoung Min, Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
• Prof. J.J. Prescott, Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Education

• LLM, University of Michigan Law School, 2024
• JD, Yonsei University Law School, 2015
• BBA, Yonsei University School of Business, 2012

Bar admissions

State of California, South Korea

Languages

English, Korean

Contact

[email protected] 

Julia Orphão Magalhães is a Michigan International and Comparative Law Scholar and an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School, where she also completed an LLM in 2021-2022.

Before joining Michigan Law, Julia pursued a Masters in Gender Studies at the London School of Economics in 2020-2021.

In 2018, she got her first Law degree from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas Law School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she was part of the Feminist Student Collective and also worked as a research assistant for different professors. During her studies, she spent a semester as a visiting student at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, where she conducted research on public and regulatory law. 

Before going back to Academia, Julia worked as a law clerk and junior associate for Trench, Rossi & Watanabe, associated with Baker Mackenzie, where she handled trademark, patent, data privacy and copyright matters for the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro offices. She was also a summer associate for Gouvea Vieira at the Paris office in 2016.

Fields of Academic Interest

Julia’s research interests include feminist legal theory, LGBTQ+ rights, international constitutional law and democratic theory.

Dissertation Project

Julia’s research will compare how the Supreme Court and the Congress in Brazil have been dealing with LGBTQ+ rights over the past three decades. Her main goal is to analyze how both institutions have adopted opposite positions regarding such minorities after the re-democratization of the country, and how the polarization of these entities affects democracy.

Doctoral Committee 

• Prof. Don Herzog, Edson R. Sunderland Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2021-2022)
• London School of Economics (Master in Gender Studies, 2020-2021
• Fundação Getúlio Vargas Law School (Bachelor of Law, 2018)
• Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Erasmus Exchange, 2017)

Languages

Portuguese, English, Spanish, French

Contact

[email protected] 

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Alain is an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School, serving as co-chair of the 11th Annual Junior Scholars Conference held by University of Michigan Law School during April 2025. Prior to his SJD studies, he completed his LLM at the University of Michigan Law School as a Grotius Fellow under a Fulbright scholarship (focusing mostly on capital markets, securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions, and transactional law) and his LLB (magna cum laude) at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) in the Dominican Republic, where he led his research on local securities regulation and necessary reforms for takeover bidding. He has been admitted to practice law in both New York and the Dominican Republic.

From a professional standpoint, he has gained practical experience in diverse environments, including De Camps, Vásquez & Valera Abogados, KPMG Dominican Republic, and serving as head law clerk at the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic for an Associate Justice. These experiences allowed him to serve as a researcher and advisor to key clients in capital markets, international taxation, and legal matters from various sectors (including the financial and energy sectors), and perform an active supervisory role in personnel, transactional drafting, due diligence proceedings, reviewing first-impression cases, aiding in the opinion drafting process, attending court proceedings, and in-depth contract drafting. Moreover, he has taught upper-level classes at the Escuela Nacional de la Judicatura.

Fields of academic interest

Alain’s areas of interest include Securities Regulation, Law and Economics, Corporate Law, and Transactional Law.

Dissertation project

His dissertation will focus on the current enforcement status of federal agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) by conducting an empirical analysis of the several causes of action that lead to civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings. The main focus is to note the factors that regulators weigh in pursuing securities enforcement and how those factors vary throughout different jurisdictions; and the convergence between the elements chosen by each agency.

Doctoral committee

• Prof. Nicholas Calcina Howson, Pao Li Tsiang Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
• Prof. Vikramaditya S. Khanna, William W. Cook Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair
• Prof. J.J. Prescott, Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Education

• LLM – University of Michigan Law School, Grotius Fellow, and Fulbright recipient (2020-2021)
• LLB (magna cum laude) – Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), Dominican Republic (2014-2018)

Languages:  English, Spanish, French

Contact

[email protected] 

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Muhui Shi is an SJD candidate at the University of Michigan Law School, where she also earned her LLM degree. She has worked as an editor for the Michigan Journal of International Law. Before coming to Ann Arbor, she has also received an LLM degree from Northwestern Law School with honors.

Muhui’s main academic interest focuses on regulations on digital currency, payments, and personal information protection. She has published several articles both in Chinese and English law journals. Muhui is an admitted attorney in the state of New York.

Fields of Academic Interest

Financial Regulation, Law and Technology, Fintech Regulation, Comparative Law, Payment Law, International Finance Law, International Economic Law, E-Commerce, Cross-Border Transactions, Personal Information Protection.

Education

• University of Michigan Law School, Master of Laws (LLM) (SJD candidate)
• Harvard Law School (Visiting Researcher)
• Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (LLM)
• China University of Political Science and Law, Bachelor of Laws (LLB, JM, PhD)
• Nagoya University School of Law (Exchange Program)

Dissertation Project

Money and payments are evolving. The transformations are happening on many fronts: the increased use of non-bank money, the facilitation of fast payment systems, and the structural changes to the international payment framework. These changes are bringing legal challenges domestically and internationally. My research works on the payment system transformation with a special focus on digital currency and international payments. 

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. John A. E. Pottow, John Philip Dawson Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School - Committee Chair
• Prof. Jeffery Zhang, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
• Prof. Muharem Kianieff, Professor of Law, University of Windsor Faculty of Law

Languages

Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese, native), English (Professional), Japanese (Professional)

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Dmytro is a legal scholar born in Shostka, Ukraine. He is a generalist international lawyer synthesizing expertise in various fields of international law. His SJD project examines big- picture changes in the enforcement of the international legal order.

Before joining Michigan, Dmytro served as an independent legal consultant to various governmental entities and NGOs on matters of international law in the context of war in Ukraine. His efforts focused on strengthening the capacity of the Ukrainian legal system to address atrocities resulting from the Russian agression, including war crimes monitoring and advocacy as well as training for judiciary and law enforcement.

Fields of Academic Interest

Public International Law, State Responsibility, Legal Theory, International Ethics

Dissertation Project

Dmytro’s project, provisionally titled ‘Rethinking Collective Enforcement of International Law,’ analyzes recent developments in global enforcement structures. His research focuses on informal shifts in collective enforcement practices of states as evidenced by recent major international crises. He explores changes in the use of doctrinal frameworks such as collective countermeasures, the balancing of community values enforcement with the stability of the international system, and the growing involvement third parties in inter-state adjudication.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Julian Arato, Professor of Law, University of Michigan – Committee Chair
• Prof. Kristina B. Daugirdas, Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law
• Prof. Fernando Lusa Bordin, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of

Cambridge

• Prof. Miles Jackson, Associate Professor of Law, Faculty of Law and the Sir David Lewis Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford

Education

• University of Michigan Law School, LLM, 2025
• National University of ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,’ Bachelor of Laws, 2022; Master of Laws, 2024

Languages

English, Ukrainian, Russian

Contact

[email protected] 

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Fran Marko Stojković is a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) pre-candidate at the University of Michigan Law School, as well as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Constitutional Law at the University of Zagreb. His research interest revolves around constitutional law, particularly constitutional questions inherent to the EU legal order and the post-socialist constitutional orders of Central and Eastern Europe.

He first obtained his master’s degree in law from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, in 2020 (summa cum laude) and subsequently acquired his LLM degree at the University of Michigan Law School in 2023 as an International and Comparative Law Scholarship fellow. During his LLM at Michigan Law, he was awarded the Kouba Prize for the best paper written on European integration. He also worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Daniel Halberstam, a Faculty Research Assistant at the Michigan Law Library, and served as an Associate Editor at the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law.

Before taking the position at the Department of Constitutional Law at the University of Zagreb in 2024, Fran Marko interned at the cabinet of Judge Rodin at the Court of Justice of the EU (2021), worked in private legal practice in Zagreb (2021-2022) and volunteered for various Croatian human rights organizations (2022-2024).

Fields of Academic Interest

Fran Marko’s fields of interest include comparative constitutional law, EU constitutional law, judicial decision-making, the concept of the rule of law, and anti-discrimination law.

Dissertation Project

Fran Marko’s dissertation project engages with the adjudication processes at post-socialist Central and Eastern European constitutional courts. It aims to showcase how, due to the underlying reasons common to Central and Eastern European legal culture, the adjudication processes at these courts are often conducted in line with values irreconcilable with the rule of law values as constructed in the jurisprudence of the European supranational courts (the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights). The project further explores the role the European supranational courts could play in transforming both these culturally conditioned patterns at the Central and Eastern European constitutional courts and their underlying causes.

Doctoral Committee

• Prof. Daniel H. Halberstam, Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School (Committee Chair)

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2023)
• Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb (Master of Laws, 2020)
• Leiden Law School (Erasmus Exchange, 2020)

Languages

Croatian (Native), English (Proficiency), French (Intermediate)

Contact

[email protected] 

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Nadia Sussman is a legal scholar from Aotearoa, New Zealand, undertaking her SJD at the University of Michigan Law School. She cares about how lawyers, laypeople, and legal systems interact.

She did her undergraduate studies in philosophy and law at the University of Auckland. During this time, she provided pro bono legal support at the Auckland Community Law Centre and published scholarship in tort law and family law. Upon graduation, she worked as a judges’ clerk at te Kōti Matua o Aotearoa, the High Court of New Zealand. She then spent a year working as civil litigator, primarily on tort law matters. In 2024 she graduated from Michigan Law School’s LLM program.

Fields of academic interest

Sussman’s current areas of focus are: legal ethics; civil procedure; law and society; evidence law; and legal philosophy.  She has also tutored, researched and published in tort law.  

Dissertation project

In the words of the witness – Evaluating the lawyer’s role in the preparation of evidential documents in civil proceedings.  

Doctoral committee

• Professor Sherman Clark, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, University of Michigan – Committee Chair
• Professor Maureen Carroll, Professor of Law, University of Michigan
• Professor Julian Webb, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne

Education

• University of Michigan, Master of Laws, 2024
• University of Auckland, Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy) and Bachelor of Laws (Honours), 2020
• University of Edinburgh, 360° exchange, 2015.

Languages
English (native)

Contact 
[email protected] 

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Mike Tiu is an SJD pre-candidate at the University of Michigan Law School where he obtained his second Master of Laws degree as an International and Comparative Law scholar in 2025. While at Michigan Law, Mike was nominated and selected as Assistant to Professor August Reinisch at the International Law Commission and will continue to serve as Assistant to the ILC Commissioner until the ILC Sessions in the Summer of 2026.

Mike is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of the Philippines College of Law. He is also the Head of the International Criminal Law Program of the UP Institute of International Legal Studies.

He began his career doing commercial, civil, and criminal litigation at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan – the largest law firm in the Philippines. He was also an Associate at Leynes Lozada-Marquez Law Offices. He worked frequently with multinational corporations during his stint in those firms and that exposure informs his dissertation project at Michigan Law. He also served as a Court Attorney in the Court of Appeals of the Philippines in 2016.

Mike is also a legal consultant with the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime (ODC), under the UN Joint Programme for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Philippines (JPHR). He is a consultant of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on gender policy and its committees on the revision of rules and has also been a Consultant of the Commission on Human Rights on matters involving international human rights standards. He is also a member of the Philippine Working Group on Business and Human Rights (BHR), having conducted BHR trainings for several of the largest publicly listed companies in the Philippines. He regularly delivers lectures on civil law matters at the Philippine Judicial Academy – the Philippines’ continuing education institution for judges.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science in 2009 and his Juris Doctor degree in 2013 at the University of the Philippines. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2014 in which he was the 8th highest ranking among all the examinees. He obtained his first Master of Laws degree in International Business Law from the Central European University and graduated with highest honors in 2017. He also attended the Winter Session of the Hague Academy of International Law in 2020.

Fields of Academic Interest

International Law, international criminal law, human rights, use of force, constitutional law, torts, remedies, administrative law

Dissertation Project

Mike will study the responsibilities of corporations (from generation, enforcement to accountability) in international law through a framework based on the social contract of the actors in the international legal community.

Doctoral Committee 

• Prof. Steven R. Ratner, Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School - Committee Chair

Education

• LLM, University of Michigan Law School, International and Comparative Law Scholar, 2025
• LLM, Central European University, International Business Law Scholar, 2017
• JD, University of the Philippines College of Law, (Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence), 2013
• BA Political Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, cum laude, 2009

Languages 

English, Filipino, Cebuano

Contact

[email protected]; [email protected] 

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Hannah is a Michigan Grotius Fellow and an SJD student at the University of Michigan Law School. She obtained her first law degree at KU Leuven (Belgium). During her studies, Hannah completed two legal exchange programs conducting comparative law in different foreign languages. At Michigan, Hannah was awarded the Joris Fellowship, participated in the Program for International Law and Development, and acquired the Certificate of Pro Bono Service for her work with the Gender Violence Project and the Rohingya Human Rights Documentation Project. 

Before joining Michigan Law in 2018, Hannah worked in the government sector. As a legal advisor at the Belgian Institute for Equality of Women and Men, she handled complex gender equality issues, advising both victims and the government. Together with the Deputy Director of the Institute, Hannah published an article analyzing the Belgian anti-sexism law from the Institute’s experiences. While working at the Institute, Hannah first noticed the legal vacuum around sexist hate speech.

Fields of academic interest

Hannah’s areas of interest include international and comparative law, human rights law, and equality law. 

Dissertation project

Hannah’s research focuses on (online) sexist hate speech. Her dissertation project aims to put forward a framework for defining sexist hate speech and legally approaching it. An important component of her research work is a comparative analysis of the U.S. and E.U. legal framework on freedom of speech and sexual harassment.  

Doctoral committee

• Prof. Don Herzog, Edson R. Sunderland Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School – Committee Chair
• Prof. Catharine A. Mackinnon, James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
• Prof. Christopher McCrudden, Professor, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast; L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Education

• University of Michigan Law School (LLM, 2019)
• KU Leuven (Master of Law - Specialisation in Private and Commercial Law, 2017; Bachelor of Law, 2015)
• Université Libre de Bruxelles (Erasmus Belgica Exchange, June 2017)
• Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Erasmus Exchange, February 2016)

Languages

• Dutch
• English
• French
• German

Contact 

Email:  [email protected]