Julie Fraser is Assistant Professor with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the Montaigne Centre at Utrecht University. She teaches in the bachelor and master programmes, including Public International Law, International Criminal Law, Transitional Justice, and International Human Rights Law. She has presented at conferences and given guest lectures/workshops on a variety of topics worldwide. Julie's present research interests include human rights and the environment, as well as relationships between Islamic and international law.
Julie is a member of the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL) and a board member of 'Fair Transitions', a platform of UU's Institutions for Open Societies that works toward safe, inclusive and climate-resilient landscapes. She is a senior peace fellow with the Public International Law & Policy Group, where she works on projects for clients relating to transitional justice, human rights, and criminal accountability. Julie is the education coordinator for the department of International and European Law at UU, and hosts monthly discussions on pedagogy. She sits on the Board of the Leiden Journal of International Law and is also the faculty advisor for the Utrecht Journal of International and European Law. Together with students from the Public International Law LLM, Julie runs the Decolonisation Reading Group. Julie was nominated for law lecturer of the year at UU in 2022, and is still thrilled about it.
Julie defended her PhD in 2018, which was awarded the Max van der Stoel Prize in Human Rights in 2019. It was published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press in 2020, Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation: 'Every Organ of Society'. As part of her doctoral research, Julie assisted the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women with their 65th session in Geneva in 2016, and undertook empirical field research in Java, Indonesia in 2017. She was also the Managing Editor of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights from 2013-2017. She has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University, Monash University, Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and the University of Washington.
Prior to academia, Julie practiced law as a qualified solicitor, including working at the International Criminal Court and Australian Government Solicitor. In addition to the PhD, Julie holds three degrees, a BA and LLB (honours) from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and an LL.M (cum laude) with from Utrecht University.