Dr Shahrzad Fouladvand specialises in Transnational Criminal Law (TCL) and international criminal justice systems, with particular expertise in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her doctoral thesis, Complementarity and Cultural Sensitivity: Decision-Making by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor in Relation to the Situations in the Darfur Region of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), examined prosecutorial decision-making within the ICC framework. She also worked as a legal researcher in the Office of the Prosecutor (Prosecution Division) at the ICC in The Hague, gaining practical experience that informs her research on international criminal justice.

 Dr Fouladvand also has professional experience as a senior expert in international labour studies, having worked with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the implementation of key ILO Fundamental Conventions, including the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111).

Prior to joining the University of Sussex, Dr Fouladvand was a Lecturer in Human Rights Law at the Law School and a Research Fellow at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at the University of Hull.

Her expertise in transnational crime, especially modern slavery and human trafficking, has also been recognised through national and international academic appointments. For example, Dr Fouladvand was appointed by the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) as the Special National Rapporteur for the United Kingdom on the theme of Contemporary Forms of Slavery.

She is also an active member of several national and international professional bodies. She is affiliated with the Strategic Hub for Organised Crime (SHOC) at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) where she authored the blog post “Tackling Human Trafficking: Moving Away from a Prosecution-Centred Approach.”

 Shahrzad is an elected member of the International Law Association (ILA) Migration Committee and the European Standing Group on Organised Crime.