Filip Vojta is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Penal Law and Criminology, University of Bern. He holds a Master of Law degree (mag. iur.) from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, and a Doctor of Law degree (Dr. iur.) from the Faculty of Law, University of Freiburg (summa cum laude). He previously held the position of a researcher in the Department of Criminology at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (formerly Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law) and was a research associate of the Max Planck Partner Group for Balkan Criminology (MPPG). His first research monograph, Imprisonment for International Crimes: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the ICTY Sentence Enforcement Practice (Duncker & Humblot, 2020), comprehensively explores the significance of penal rehabilitation for the perpetrators of international crimes and its implementation in the prison treatment of the ICTY convicts. In 2020, the study was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal by the Max Planck Society as an outstanding scientific achievement.
As a research associate, Filip Vojta participated in several international research projects, including Life Imprisonment Worldwide, Life Imprisonment Worldwide Revisited (with the University of Nottingham) and Imprisonment in the Balkans (with MPPG). His research was previously funded by the Max Planck Society, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Open Society Foundations. As an author and co-editor (with Dr. Timm Sureau), Filip Vojta is currently working on a book project On Punishment: Negotiating Society. The book will feature contributions from an interdisciplinary group of scholars on the contemporary trends and challenges in penal policies worldwide. He is simultaneously engaged in interdisciplinary research on international criminal justice and transitional justice, with focus on the post-Yugoslavian states.
Research disciplines and fields
- International criminal law
- Transitional justice
- Comparative penology
- Criminology of collective and political violence
Membership
- European Society of Criminology Postgraduate and Early Stage Researchers Working Group (Chair)
- European Criminology Group on Atrocity Crimes and Transitional Justice (Member)
- European Society of Criminology Working Group on Qualitative Research Methodologies and Epistemologies (Member)
- Perpetrator Studies Network (Member)
Prizes & Awards
- Otto Hahn Medal 2020. The Max Planck Society honours up to 30 young scientists and researchers each year with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements.
- Finalist for the “Deutscher Studienpreis 2019” award, granted by the Körber Foundation (shortlisted among 482 applications as one of the ten best German doctoral dissertations in the humanities).
