Research group
The project group is composed of the research group of the Faculty of Government and European Studies at the New University.
Principal investigator
Prof. dr. Matej Avbelj
Matej Avbelj is Professor of European Law and Vice-Rector of the New University. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, received his LL.M. from NYU School of Law in New York and his Ph.D. from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Dr. Avbelj has been the recipient of numerous prestigious international scholarships and has lectured at many foreign universities in both Europe and the USA. He is also currently the holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Law at the New University, where he holds the Jean Monnet Chair awarded by the European Commission. Dr Avbelj has published numerous academic works on EU law, constitutional law, legal theory and human rights protection with leading national and international publishers. The Future of EU Constitutionalism (Hart 2023); The Impact of European Institutions on the Rule of Law and Democracy in Slovenia and Beyond (Hart 2020, with Letnar Černič); The European Union under Transnational law (Hart, 2018); Research Handbook on Legal Pluralism and EU Law (Edward Elgar 2018, co-edited with Gareth Davies); Kadi on Trial: A Multifaceted Analysis of the Kadi Trial (Routledge 2016, co-edited by Martinico and Fontanelli); Constitutional Pluralism in the EU and beyond (Hart 2012; co-edited by Komarek). Dr. Avbelj is, among others, the editor-in-chief of the Commentary on the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. He is also active in research, having either led or participated as a researcher in several national and international scientific research projects. He has also been actively involved in domestic and foreign professional associations and has participated in several civil society initiatives. He also consults in the field of EU law, constitutional law and human rights. His bibliography comprises more than 700 works.
e-mail: matej.avbelj@epf.nova-uni.si
Researchers
Prof. dr. Jernej Letnar Černič
Jernej Letnar Černič is a Full Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Government and European Studies and the European Faculty of Law at the New University.
So far, he has published numerous articles in Slovenian, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, and Romanian. He has recently published four scientific monographs on business and human rights: »Business and Human Rights: Slovenian and International Perspectives«, Nova univerza, 2023; »Business and human rights: Comparative Legal Analysis of the Role and Competences of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding in the area of business and human rights« (with Anja Strojin Štampar and Til Rozman, Nova univerza, 2021), »Corporate accountability under socio-economic rights«, Oxon, New York: Routledge, 2020. He has also co-authored and co-edited a book on »The Future of Business and Human Rights: Theoretical and Practical Considerations for a UN Treaty«, Cambridge; Antwerp; Portland: Intersentia. 2018 (with Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli).
His work has been cited in reports by the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe, in decisions of the Slovenian Constitutional Court, and in academic studies from all around the world. He has been active in various roles in Slovenian and global civil society, participating in numerous domestic and international philanthropic projects.
Assoc. prof. dr. Gorazd Justinek
Gorazd Justinek is an associate professor doctor of International Business and of international political, economic and business relations. He is a former diplomat and a founding member of the Division for Economic Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia. He has been for several years also the Head of the Division for Internationalisation at the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for entrepreneurship and foreign direct Investments and during the Slovenia’s EU Council Presidency in 2008 the domestic macroeconomic and foreign economic relations adviser to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia. After Slovenia’s accession to the OECD, he became the coordinator of Slovenia’s representatives in the institutional bodies of the OECD in Paris and worked on the program budget of Slovenia, macroeconomic analysis and reforms in public sector. For two mandates he was the CEO of a non-governmental Foundation – Centre for European Perspectives, the key implementation body of the Republic of Slovenia’s development assistance in the Western Balkans and a research centre with several Horizont 2020 projects. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy (Geneva), and a member of several other editorial boards of international scientific journals (Scopus and WoS).
e-mail: gorazd.justinek@epf.nova-uni.si
Prof. dr. Marko Novak
Marko Novak is Full Professor of Legal Philosophy, Legal Theory, and Constitutional Law at the European Faculty of Law, New University, and Management and Law College. He graduated from the University of Ljubljana in 1992, completed his LL.M. at the Georgetown University Law School in the USA in 1994, and his doctorate in law at the University of Ljubljana in 2001. He has served as President of the Judicial Council of the Republic of Slovenia and member of the Executive Board of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ). He was again appointed a member of the Judicial Council in 2024 for a six-year term.
e-mail: marko.novak@epf.nova-uni.si
Izr. prof. dr. Katja Triller Vrtovec
Katja Triller Vrtovec has completed her law studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana in 2002 and has passed the state bar exam in 2004. From 2004 to 2010 she has been employed as a Senior Judicial Advisor at the Supreme Court, and from 2010 to 2017 as an Advisor to the Constitutional Court. From 2017 to 2020, she has been working as a secretary in the Legislative and Legal Services of the National Assembly. In spring 2020, she has been working as an Acting Director of Government Legislative Service. Currently, she serves as a State Secretary in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister.
In 2003, she has completed her master’s degree (LL. M.) at the University of Houston (USA). In 2008, she has defended her doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, entitled Ethical Aspects of Patenting Embryonic Stem Cells. She has done scientific research at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Munich (Germany) and at Stanford University in Palo Alto (USA). In 2019 she has been elected Assistant Professor in the field of Public Administration and Administrative Law at the European University Faculty of Law.
Dr. Helena U. Vrabec has almost a decade of experience advising major U.S. technology companies on legal aspects of privacy, cybersecurity, and AI. She currently serves as Senior Counsel at Instacart, a leading gig economy platform, and was previously part of the legal team at Palantir Technologies. Alongside her legal practice, she is affiliated with Leiden University as a lecturer and senior researcher.
Dr. Vrabec holds a Master of Laws from the University of Ljubljana, an LL.M. from both Tilburg University and New York University, and a Ph.D. in data protection law from Leiden University.
In 2018, Dr. Vrabec was a Resident Fellow at Yale Law School, where she conducted research at the Information Society Project under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jack Balkin. Before her time at Yale, she spent three years as a Ph.D. researcher at Leiden Law School, where she also served as a European Commission ethics expert and delivered lectures on privacy law to both students and legal professionals. Prior to academia, she worked as a privacy advisor at Ernst & Young in Amsterdam, collaborating with global corporations to implement data protection frameworks.
Dr. Vrabec regularly publishes in peer-reviewed journals on data protection, big data, and law & technology. She also speaks at national and international conferences. Her book, Data Subject Rights under the GDPR, was published by Oxford University Press in 2021.