Ekaterina Aristova

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow

Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

Other affiliations

Faculty of Law Mansfield College Oxford Business and Human Rights Network (OxBHR)

Biography

Ekaterina is an academic and a lawyer specialising in the field of business and human rights. Her work focuses on strategic human rights and environmental litigation. She examines how conventional private law doctrines evolve in response to global challenges and are used creatively in different jurisdictions to foster human rights and environmental accountability. Ekaterina is the author of ‘Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations: The Challenge of Jurisdiction in English Courts’ (OUP 2024), a revised manuscript of a PhD thesis completed at the University of Cambridge. She is also a co-editor of ‘Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux’ (Hart Publishing 2022) and ‘Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations: A Handbook for Practitioners’ (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights 2022).

Since 2019, Ekaterina has been a Research Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford), where she convenes a course ‘Business and Human Rights - Real World Accountability’ and supervises postgraduate students. In 2019-2022, Ekaterina coordinated a project on civil liability for human rights violations funded by Oak Foundation. In 2022, she was awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to complete a project on corporate climate change litigation. Ekaterina is regularly invited as a guest lecturer and speaker to teach or talk about international litigation, ESG governance, climate change and business and human rights.

In the last few years, Ekaterina also served as a consultant on several research projects that have sought to strengthen corporate accountability for human rights violations. Prior to commencing her academic career, she practised corporate law, specialising in all aspects of M&A transactions, completing a training contract in White & Case’s Moscow office before spending seven years as a senior in-house lawyer at two leading Russian investment companies.

You can follow Ekaterina on Twitter.

Publications

Journal Article (8)

Aristova E, ‘The Future of Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: Is Forum [Non] Conveniens Back?’ (2021) 6(3) BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL 399

Aristova E, ‘Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: The Challenge of Jurisdiction’ (2018) 14(2) Utrecht Law Review 6

Aristova E, ‘Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in England’ (2017) 5 Tijdschrift Voor Compliance 269

Aristova E, ‘JURISDICTION OF THE ENGLISH COURTS OVER OVERSEAS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS’ (2016) 75(3) CAMBRIDGE LAW JOURNAL 468

Aristova E, ‘Piercing the Corporate Veil in USA and UK [Russian Language]’ (2013) 1 Russian Justice 50

Aristova E, ‘Application of the Control Theory to the Determination of the Nationality of the Foreign Investor [Russian Language]’ (2012) 11 Russian Justice 46

Aristova E, ‘Accountability of Transnational Corporations for Human Rights Violations under Public International Law [Russian Language]’ (2012) 4 Reporter of Perm State University. Legal Science. 210

Aristova E, Higham C, Higham I, and others, ‘Conceptualising Corporate Climate Change Responsibilities under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct’ International and Comparative Law Quarterly

Aristova E, Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: The Challenge of Jurisdiction (Oxford University Press 2024)

Aristova E, Liability of Transnational Corporations: Theory and Practice (in Russian) (Infotropic)

Aristova E, ‘Private International Law and Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Violations’ in K Duden (ed.), IPR für eine bessere Welt Vision - Realität - Irrweg? (Mohr Siebeck 2022)

Aristova E and Grušić U, ‘Introduction: Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux’ in E Aristova and U Grušić (eds.), Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux: Key Legal Developments in Selected Jurisdictions (Hart Publishing 2022)

Aristova E, ‘Russian Federation’ in L Lazarus, D Garrido Alves and C Kypraios (eds.), Bonavero Report No. 7/2020 ‘A Human Rights and Rule of Law Assessment of Legislative and Regulatory Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic across 27 Jurisdictions’ (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights 2020)

Edited book (1)

Aristova E and Grušic U (eds.), Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux: Key Legal Developments in Selected Jurisdictions (Hart Publishing 2022)

Internet publication or blog post (18)

Aristova E, ‘Greenwashing Exposed: A Close Look at the Existing Case Law (Part 3)’ (Oxford Business Law Blog, 12 December 2023)

Aristova E, ‘Greenwashing Exposed: A Close Look at the Existing Case Law (Part 2)’ (Oxford Business Law Blog, 11 December 2023)

Aristova E, ‘Greenwashing Exposed: A Close Look at the Existing Case Law (Part 1)’ (Oxford Business Law Blog, 6 December 2023)

Aristova E, ‘Adjudicating Human Rights and Environmental Claims Against Transnational Corporations: The Jurisdictional Reasonableness Test’ (Rights as Usual, 6 December 2023)

Aristova E, ‘The Jurisdiction Puzzle: Dyson, Supply Chain Liability and Forum Non Conveniens’ (Conflict of Laws.net, 11 November 2023)

Aristova E and Lopez C, ‘Symposium: Civil Liability Claims for Business-Related Human Rights Abuses – Opening New Frontiers’ (Opinio Juris, 21 June 2021)

Aristova E and Lopez C, ‘UK Okpabi et al v Shell: UK Supreme Court Reaffirms Parent Companies May Owe a Duty of Care Towards Communities Impacted by their Subsidiaries in Third Countries’ (Opinio Juris, 16 February 2021)

Aristova E, ‘Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux’ (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 21 January 2021)

Aristova E, ‘Okpabi v Shell in the Supreme Court: Limits of Civil Liability of the UK Parent Companies for Overseas Environmental Pollution’ (Ardea International, 24 June 2020)

Aristova E, ‘Call for EU Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation: What Can Be Learnt from France and the Netherlands?’ (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, 23 June 2020)

Aristova E, ‘Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence in the UK: To Be or Not to Be?’ (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, 23 June 2020)

Aristova E, ‘Exploring Trends in Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence’ (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, 23 June 2020)

Aristova E, ‘Clarifying the Limits of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction of English Courts to Try Business-related Human Rights Violations’ (Business and Human Rights Journal Blog, 2 May 2019)

Aristova E, ‘UK Supreme Court Decision in Vedanta: Finding a Proper Balance between Brussels I and the English Common Law Rules of Jurisdiction’ (Conflict of Laws.net, 24 April 2019)

Aristova E, ‘Court of Appeal allows in England claims against English-based multinational for overseas human rights violations’ (Conflict of Laws.net, 18 October 2017)

Aristova E, ‘Suing TNCs in the English Courts: The Challenge of Jurisdiction’ (Conflict of Laws.net, 1 February 2017)

Aristova E, ‘UK Court on Tort litigation Against Transnational Corporations’ (Conflict of Laws.net, 23 June 2016)

Aristova E, ‘Business and Human Rights in Russia: Recent Trends’ (EHRAC Bulletin, 1 January 2015)

Aristova E and O’Regan C, ‘Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations: A Handbook for Practitioners’ (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights 2022)