Kaja Kowalczewska
Kaja Kowalczewska, PhD is Assistant Professor at Digital Justice Center. Since April 2024 she serves as a coordinator and contact person of the KOOS Coalition for victims, survivors and witnesses – Polish CSOs documenting international crimes committed in Ukraine and advocating for comprehensive reform of international criminal law in Poland, including creation of support system for victims and survivors.
Kaja received her first master’s degree in law from Jagiellonian University of Krakow. During these master studies she gained international experience at the University of Montpellier 1 in France (Erasmus+) and at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Vienna) in Austria (Erasmus + internship). At the same time, Kaja graduated from the School of French Law, completed Master II professionnel in French and International Business Law at the University of Orléans in France, which finished with the internship at the French National Court of Asylum (CNDA) in Montreuil, France.
She continued studies in France at the Panthéon-Assas University in Paris and was awarded the title of Master II recherche in International Private and Business Law. In 2013 she was awarded the title of Master of Arts in European Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Europe, Natolin Campus (full scholarship by European Commission).
In 2012, Kaja started her doctoral studies at the Jagiellonian University and was awarded three year-long grant from National Science Centre (PRELUDIUM) and scholarship (ETIUDA) to research the legality of lethal autonomous weapon systems. In 2017 she spent three months in the Program on Regulating Emerging Military Technologies at the University of Melbourne (Australia). In December 2018 Kaja defended her PhD dissertation entitled ‘Lethal systems with progressive autonomy – an international legal analysis’. For her dissertation she was awarded the first prize in the XXII edition of the Prof. Remigiusz Bierzanek competition organized by Polish Red Cross and Ministry of Education “Excellent Science” scholarship.
Kaja is a member of:
- the Commission for the Promotion of International Humanitarian Law at the General Board of the Polish Red Cross;
- the Working Group on Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry of Digital Affairs (GRAI);
- the Polish Group of the International Criminal Law Association (AIDP);
- the Polish Group of the International Association of International Law (ILA);
- the European Society of International Law (ESIL).
Throughout her academic career she taught inter alia courses in public international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and EU law. She was also an expert of MCDC NATO-ACT program ‘Counter Unmanned Autonomous Systems: Priorities. Policy. Future Capabilities’.
She is currently researching the impact of new technologies on the digitalization and democratization of international criminal justice efforts. Her broader research interests encompass the influence of emerging and disruptive technologies on public international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and human rights law.
Her dream job (apart from research) is to be paid for listening to the music she enjoys.
List of her publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kaja-Kowalczewska.
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9799-9150
List of top 5 publications:
- Kowalczewska Kaja, Heightened Risk if Revictimization as a Challenge Stemming from Digitalization and Democratization of International Criminal Justice Efforts. Case Study of the Polish Civil Society Organisations in the Aftermath of Russian Aggression on Ukraine in: Victim-Centered Criminal Justice; eds. Megumi Ochi, Renata Barbosa, and Luyuan Bai, Maklu, 2024, 99–128.
- Kowalczewska Kaja, War-Torn Justice: Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Armed Conflict on Fair Trial Guarantees in Ukraine, Revista Brasileira de Direito Processual Penal, 9(3), 2023. https://doi.org/10.22197/rbdpp.v9i3.896.
- Mamak Kamil and Kowalczewska Kaja, Military robots should not look like humans, Ethics and Information Technology, 25(43), 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-023-09718-6.
- Kowalczewska Kaja and Kijewska Barbara, War Algorithms in Modern Deliberative Democracies: Parliamentary Technology Assessment as a Public Conscience Discovery Tool?, Teoria Jurídica Contemporânea, 7, 2022, pp. 1-32. https://doi.org/10.21875/tjc.v7i0.50767.
- Kowalczewska Kaja, Sztuczna inteligencja na wojnie. [Artificial intelligence in war], (Scholar Publishing House, 2021), pp. 261. https://doi.org/10.7366/9788366470422.
