Nicole Styb­n­arova

My research investigates how international law shapes global economic and social hierarchies - particularly in local contexts - and how it might be transformed to center its marginalized voices. 

I study international economic development law through the lens of male and female ‘peasants’, artisans, small entrepreneurs and other actors historically excluded from legal and economic authorship. Using UN and ILO archives, I trace how legal frameworks were designed in the process of ‘decolonizing’ and economically transforming the historical non-self-governing territories. My interest is to map how these legal frameworks shaped gender relations, land use, industrialization, marketization, and trade across the territories and how the territories’ inhabitants viewed these changes. I combine grounded theory approach with feminist theory, socio-linguistics, and political economy to offer a perspective on international economic development law from below. 

My work contributes to more equitable and inclusive approaches to international law and development. It helps policymakers, NGOs, and scholars rethink how international legal systems can better serve communities historically overlooked by global governance. It also provides tools for analyzing the legal infrastructures that enable transnational corporate activity and the uneven effects of globalization on labor, land, and livelihoods. 

Supervision, Collaboration and Consulting 

International Law, EU Law, and Private International Law, Comparative Law and Public Law

Especially projects addressing these fields’ relation to global economic and social (in)equality, international trade and activity of corporations and other economic actors, resource extraction and preservation, labor, participation and inclusion, knowledge production and international economic history. 

Academic Experience and Qualifications 

Before joining CBS, I held academic positions at Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy, Leiden University, and the University of Oxford, where I taught courses in Public International Law, EU Law, Comparative Public Law, and Legal Theory. I hold a PhD from the University of Helsinki, an MPhil from Oxford University, and an LLM from Charles University in Prague.