Dr Helga Hejny

Helga Hejny is a full time Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. She consistently model a student-centred approach to her work, always going the extra mile to support and encourage students. Moreover, she is an ambitious early career researcher with research interests, which align to the ‘Ageing’, ‘Blockchain technology’ and ‘Social Inclusion’ areas. In the Faculty of Law Economics, Finance and Law Helga is the referent for organising guest lectures and she is also a PhD supervisor and the Erasmus Coordinator for the Law Department.

[email protected]

Background

Helga graduated in law (Magister degree – 5 years) in 2008 from University of Bologna where she started to work as a research assistant on projects related to Public International Law. From 2009 to 2010 she worked as a legal practitioner in a law firm. In 2010 she obtained an LLM in American Law and International Legal Practice (Loyola Law School, Los Angeles) and in 2011 she concluded a second LLM in Legal Research (Middlesex University, London). In 2012 Helga was part of a team who won a grant for researching on public international law on a project on Temporary Agency Work and in 2014 and 2015 she worked as a research assistant respectively at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and at Utrecht University. In 2016 Helga completed a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) in European and comparative law with a focus on Age Discrimination in financial services. As a researcher, she specialised also in the field of business and human rights (specifically on the ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’). In 2019 she was a visiting researcher at Loyola Law School (Los Angeles, California) working on a project on Blockchain and age discrimination.

Spoken Languages

• English
• Italian
• German

Research interests

• European law
• Human rights and public international law
• Labour law and vulnerable workers
• Comparative law
• Human rights in human resource management
• Environmental law 

Areas of research supervision

• Business and human rights (specifically on the 'Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights')
• Age Discrimination and comparative research
• Blockchain and the law
• European law

Teaching

Helga has a significant and extensive teaching experience. Her aim to prioritize student satisfaction is reflected in her teaching, which has been consistently rated very highly by students. Overall, students appreciate both her engaging teaching style highlighting the following strengths: “I find this module quite hard but Helga’s enthusiasm and helpful nature have got me to a comfortable point”; “Helga is a very good and able lecturer, very professional and always willing to give her time for clarifications”. Thus, Helga’s professionalism, enthusiasm and pastoral care are highly considered and helpful for the academic advancement of our law students. From 2016 to 2019 Helga was the Module Leader for the ‘Constitution and Administrative Law’ module (30 Credits, compulsory module LLB) and in 2018 she became Module Leader also for the European Law (15 credits, compulsory module LLB) and Human Rights Law modules (15 credits, optional module LLB).

Qualifications

• Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) PG Cert at Anglia Ruskin University. Postgraduate qualification (level 7 of the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications). 
• PhD in law from Middlesex University (London) in European and comparative law. Title: “Age Discrimination in financial services: a comparison between Italy, UK and Austria”. The research covered the Council Directive 2000/78/EC on Equality in employment 
• LLM in Legal Research at Middlesex University (London). 
• LLM in American law and International legal practice, Loyola Law School of Los Angeles 
• Magister Degree in Law, University of Bologna "Alma Mater Studiorum" 
• Diploma in Social Sciences,  Liceo delle scienze sociali "Giosuè Carducci"

 

Memberships, editorial boards

• 2017 Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• 2017 Member of the Athena Swan Committee
• 2010 Member of the Italian Association of International Law “S.I.D.I.”
• 2010 Member of ELSA: The European Law Students' Association
• 2012 Member of the editorial board ‘Comité de Redacción, Escuela Internacional de Alta Formación en Relaciones Laborales y de Trabajo de ADAPT
• 2018 Member UACES, or the academic association for Contemporary European Studies
• 2016 Member of the SLS - Society of Legal Scholars
• 2018 Member of the Professional Training for Lawyers & Barristers in the UN Guiding Principles in Business and Human Rights Working Group

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• PhD scholarship Middlesex University (2010)
• Legal Practitioner (civil and criminal law 2009)

Selected recent publications

Hejny H., ‘Il caso di Giuliana Sgrena ed i crimini internazionali’ in Baroncini, E. (ed.) Giudici e diritto internazionale. Casi scelti, (Libreria Bonomo Editore, 2011).

Hejny H., ‘The lump of labour fallacy and youth unemployment: implications of an ageing population’, in Tackling youth unemployment, edited by Morley Gunderson and Francesca Fazio, (Cambridge Scholars publishing 2014).

Contribution to edited book ‘La convenzione di Aarhus e l'accesso alla giustizia in materia ambientale’ (2011) edited by Attila Tanzi, Elena Fasoli and Lucrezia Iapichino. Cedam.

Hejny, H., 'Age Discrimination in Financial Services: The United Kingdom Case' [2016] E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies, 5(3), pp1-21. ISSN 2280-4056

Hejny H., Zucaro R., “La staffetta giovani-anziani e la discriminazione per età”, in Michele Squeglia , La “staffetta intergenerazionale” tra discutibili modelli e dubbie prospettive, Boll. Speciale ADAPT, 2013, n. 14.

Recent presentations and conferences

Hejni, H. 'Multinational Corporations and Human Rights' [2017] presented at the Annual Conference of the Society of Legal Scholars in Dublin on 'The Diverse Unities of Law'

Hejni, H. 'Age Discrimination in financial Services: the United Kingdom Case' [2017] presented at the conference at the University of Northampton 'Approaches to Inequalities'