Dr Thomas Hansen

Overview

Thomas Obel Hansen is affiliated with the School of Law / Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) at Ulster University as a Senior Research Fellow (from 2026), a role aiming to promote collaborative research activities in the context of his appointment as Distinguished Professor with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He previously served as Senior Lecturer in Law with Ulster (2016-25).

Thomas obtained his LLM (2007) and PhD in Law (2010) from Aarhus University Law School in Denmark. He has previously worked with the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi.

His research focuses on justice for atrocity, including doctrinal as well as socio-legal and international relations perspectives on national and international justice. Prior and ongoing research projects examine issues relating to transitional justice theory and standardization; the politics and legitimacy of international justice; justifications for punishment of international crimes; the role of civil society in accountability processes; the ICC’s complementarity regime; environmental crimes; accountability for ‘powerful actors’; and various doctrinal studies of international criminal law. He has researched and written about legal topics in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq, Palestine, the UK and elsewhere.

Thomas’ research has received funding from the British Academy, Independent Research Fund Denmark, Royal Irish Society, Open Society and various university grants. His research is published with leading international law reviews such as UPenn, NYU, George Washington, Melbourne, Notre Dame and human rights journals such as HRQ, Australian, Nordic and the International Journal of Human Rights and the International Journal of Transitional Justice. He has contributed to the public debate about issues of international and transitional justice, through blog posts on EJIL:Talk!, Opinio Juris, Just Security and other leading blogs; media contributions to The Guardian, BBC, China Radio International and other outlets; as well as contributions to parliamentary and government consultations and submission of evidence to international bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council and national courts.

Thomas has served as expert advisor for organizations such as UNDP, OSCE, Open Society Justice Initiative, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Danish Foreign Ministry, and the International Center for Transitional Justice.