Our People
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has a dedicated staff as well as a diverse and dynamic membership, providing a home for leaders in the field of human rights law.
Co-Directors
Co-Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law
Professor Nolan’s professional experience in human rights and constitutional law straddles the legal, policy, practitioner and academic fields. She is Vice-President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights, Europe’s leading monitoring body on economic and social rights which she joined in 2017.
She has published extensively in the areas of human rights and constitutional law, particularly in relation to children's rights and economic and social rights. She currently leads a major three-year international research project on ‘Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation’. Professor Nolan has acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national organisations and bodies working on human rights issues, including numerous UN Special Procedures, UN treaty bodies, the Council of Europe, multiple NHRIs and NGOs.
She has held visiting positions at academic institutions in Europe, Africa, the US and Australia. She is an Academic Expert member at Doughty Street Chambers where she co-leads the Children’s Rights Group.
aoife.nolan@nottingham.ac.uk
Co-Director and Professor of Public International Law
In addition to co-directing the centre, Marko Milanovic is Professor of Public International Law at the School of Law. Marko is co-editor of EJIL: Talk!, the blog of the European Journal of International Law, as well as a member of the EJIL's Editorial Board. He was formerly Vice-President and member of the Executive Board of the European Society of International Law. He held visiting professorships at Michigan Law School, Columbia Law School, Deakin Law School, the University of the Philippines College of Law, and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
Marko was appointed by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights as one of three high-level experts who will assist her in conducting a comprehensive examination of alleged human rights violations committed in Belarus since 1 May 2020, pursuant to the UN Human Rights Council's mandate in its resolution 46/20. He is co-general editor of the ongoing Tallinn Manual 3.0 project on the application of international law in cyberspace, and a recipient of the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for a project on the legal aspects of intelligence sharing in multinational military operations. Marko is also an Associate of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
marko.milanovic@nottingham.ac.uk
Research and academic staff
Laura Wills
Research Associate
Laura Wills joined the Human Rights Law Centre in March 2014. Laura holds an LLM in Human Rights Law from the University of Bristol. Prior to arriving in Nottingham she was conducting research for the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol and worked as a Caseworker providing advocacy and information for asylum seekers at a Bristol based NGO.
Within her current role Laura conducts research under the Centre’s FRANET contract, assists with the design and implementation of the Centre’s bespoke training and capacity building programmes, is the Assistant Editor of the International Human Rights Reports and module convenor of the International Refugee Law module on HRLC's Distance Learning Course.
Laura is also the Director of HRLC's Refugee Clinic having co-founded the Clinic in January 2020. She oversee's the Clinic's casework and research and supervises the team of Student Caseworkers.
laura.wills@nottingham.ac.uk