Principal Lecturer in Law and Director of Research

Dr Borelli specialises in public international law, with a particular focus on international and European human rights law, international humanitarian law and international refugee law.

Dr Borelli is Portfolio Lead for the undergraduate and postgraduate Law programmes and is the Director of the Centre for Research in Law (CRiL). She is also the Academic Coordinator of the Refugee Legal Assistance Project (RLAP), which she co-founded in 2013.

Prior to joining the University of Bedfordshire, she was a Research and Teaching Fellow at the Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL) and before that a Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Milan. She currently holds a visiting position at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London (KCL).

Her research focuses on the protection of fundamental rights in the context of armed conflict and military operations abroad, counter-terrorism and human rights, and the compatibility of immigration control measures with international human rights standards.

Dr Borelli was previously lead investigator on a research project funded by the Families Together Programme which explored the UK legal framework on refugee family reunification, and has previously been involved in large scale collaborative projects, including a project on cultural diversity and human rights supported by the Italian Ministry for Universities and an EU-funded project investigating the impact of the decisions of international courts and tribunals on domestic prosecutions of mass atrocities (DOMAC).

She has also acted as an academic consultant for various human rights NGOs and in that capacity has been involved in a range of human rights cases, including before the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UK House of Lords.

She has held visiting positions at the British Institute of Public International Law (BIICL), the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, the Faculty of Law at Reykjavik University, King’s College London and the Universities of Trento and Parma, Italy.

Qualifications

• Degree in Law (laurea) - University of Parma
• Masters in International Relations - University of Bologna
• PhD in Public International Law - University of Milan
• Avvocato (non-practising) - Italian Bar
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• Accredited at OISC Level 2 (Asylum and protection) to provide immigration advice

Teaching Expertise

• Public International Law
• International Human Rights Law
• International Humanitarian Law
• Use of Force / War Law
• Foreign Relations Law
• European Human Rights Law
• Strategic Human Rights Litigation
• International Refugee Law

Research Interests

Current research interests include:

• The international protection of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
• Human rights in situations of armed conflict
• The extraterritorial application of international human rights obligations
• Counter-terrorism and human rights
• Cultural diversity and human rights (in particular issues relating to the right to manifest and practice one's religion)
• Access to justice for asylum seekers and refugees.
• UK immigration law (including, in particular, Family Reunion)

Dr Borelli currently supervises four doctoral students within the Centre for Research in Law and she is happy to consider supervising students in any of her areas of research interest, as listed above.

External Roles

• Member, Board of Trustees, Alliance for Lawyers at Risk (2024-present)
• Senior Research Fellow and Affiliated Faculty, Transnational Law Institute, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London (2014 – present)
• Member, Executive Committee, Alliance for Lawyers at Risk (2018 – 2023)
• External Examiner, LLB (Hons) and LLB (Hons) Online, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (2016-2020)
• Member, Lawyers Advisory Committee, Peace Brigades International UK (PBI UK) (2011-2018)
• Member, Peer Review College of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (2012-2015)
• Academic consultant to NGOs specialising in international human rights advocacy and strategic litigation
• Member of the Society of Legal Scholars, the International Law Association (British Branch) and the Human Rights Lawyers’ Association

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• “Right to Asylum and Prohibition of Collective Expulsion” in I. Papanicolopolou and A. Petrig (eds.), Handbook on Human Rights at Sea (OUP, forthcoming)
• “Article 9 – Conduct carried out in the absence or default of the official authorities” in P. Galvão Teles, and P. Bodeau-Livinec (eds.), Commentary on the Articles on State Responsibility (OUP, forthcoming) (with S. Olleson)
• ‘The Italian Response to Exploitation of Migrant Workers in the Agricultural Sector: Between Criminalization and Prevention’, Italian Yearbook of International Law, vol. XXIX (2020) (with M.C. Vitucci) (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=3700991)
• ‘Pushing Back Against Push-backs: A Right of Entry for Migrants and Asylum Seekers Unlawfully Prevented from Reaching Italian Territory?’, Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, vol. 14(1) (2020), pp. 236-245 (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=3700989)
• ‘Extraordinary Rendition, Counter-Terrorism, and International Law’, in B. Saul (ed.), Research Handbook on Terrorism and International Law (2nd) (Edward Elgar, 2020), pp. 336-353 (also 1st ed., 2014, pp. 361-378)
• ‘The (Mis)-Use of General Principles of Law: Lex Specialis and the Relationship between International Human Rights Law and the Laws of Armed Conflict’, in L. Pineschi (ed.), General Principles of Law – The Role of the Judiciary (Springer, 2015), pp. 265–293 (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2575076)
• ‘Jaloud v. The Netherlands and Hassan v. United Kingdom: Time for a principled approach in the application of the ECHR to military action abroad’, Questions of International Law, vol. 2, issue 16 (2015), pp. 25–43 (available at http://www.qil-qdi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/03_Jaloud_BORELLI_FIN1.pdf)
• ‘Troubled Waters in the Mare Nostrum: Interception and “Push-backs” in the Mediterranean and the European Convention on Human Rights’, Uluslararası Hukuk ve Politika – Review of International Law and Politics, vol. 10 (2014), pp. 29–69, (with B. Stanford) (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2431658)
• ‘Article 8’, in C.J. Tams and R. O’Keefe (eds), The United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 124–136 (with Simon Olleson)
• ‘Article 9’, in C.J. Tams and R. O’Keefe (eds), The United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 137–151 (with Simon Olleson)
• ‘Domestic Investigation and Prosecution of Atrocities Committed during Military Operations: The Impact of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights’, Israel Law Review, vol. 46 (2013), pp. 369–404
• ‘Of Veils, Crosses and Turbans: The European Court of Human Rights and the Protection of Cultural Diversity in Europe’, in S. Borelli and F. Lenzerini (eds), Cultural Heritage, Cultural Rights, Cultural Diversity: New Developments in International Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2012), pp. 55-82
• ‘Rendition, Torture and Intelligence Cooperation’, in H. Born, I. Leigh, A. Wills (eds), International Intelligence Cooperation: Challenges, Oversight and the Role of Law (Routledge, 2011)
• ‘Countermeasures: Obligations Relating to Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’, in J. Crawford, A. Pellet and S. Olleson (eds), The Law of International Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 1177-1196 (with Simon Olleson)
• ‘Allontanamento dello straniero dal territorio e norme internazionali per la tutela dei diritti umani’, in L. Zagato (ed.), Verso una disciplina comune europea del diritto d'asilo (CEDAM, 2006), pp. 99-122
• ‘Estradizione, espulsione e tutela dei diritti fondamentali’, in L. Pineschi (ed.), La tutela internazionale dei diritti umani: norme, garanzie, prassi (Giuffrè, 2006), pp. 773-800
• ‘Le riserve ai trattati sui diritti umani’, in L. Pineschi (ed.), La tutela internazionale dei diritti umani: norme, garanzie, prassi (Giuffrè, 2006), pp. 724-751
• ‘Casting Light on the Legal Black Hole: International Law and Detentions Abroad in the “War on Terror”’, International Review of the Red Cross, vol. 87 (2005), no. 857, pp. 39-68
• ‘The Treatment of Terrorist Suspects Captured Abroad: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’, in A. Bianchi (ed.), Enforcing International Law Norms Against Terrorism (Hart Publishing, 2004), pp. 39-61
• ‘The Rendition of Terrorist Suspects to the United States: Human Rights and the Limits of International Cooperation’, in A. Bianchi (ed.), Enforcing International Law Norms Against Terrorism (Hart Publishing, 2004), pp. 331-373
• ‘Terrorism and Human Rights: Treatment of Terrorist Suspects and Limits on International Cooperation’, Leiden Journal of International Law, vol. 16 (2003), pp. 803-820

Edited Volumes

• Borelli and F. Lenzerini (eds), Cultural Heritage, Cultural Rights, Cultural Diversity: New Developments in International Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2012)

Shorter Pieces / Book Reviews

• “State Responsibility”, in Oxford Bibliographies in International Law (ed. Tony Carty. Oxford University Press, 2012; updated 2017), see oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/obo/page/international-law
• ‘Towards a Less Secular Europe? The Decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Lautsi v. Italy’, ASIL Insight, vol. 15, issue 12 (May 2011), available at www.asil.org/insights/volume/15/issue/12/towards-less-secular-europe-decision-grand-chamber-european-court-human
• ‘Balancing National Security Concerns and Individual Rights in the Fight against Terrorism: The ICJ's Advisory Opinion on “The Wall”’, INTERIGHTS Bulletin, vol. 15:1 (November 2004), pp. 32-34

Contact Details

E: silvia.borelli@beds.ac.uk

T: +44 (0)1582 743015