Zlata Đurđević

prof. dr. sc. Zlata Đurđević

prof. dr. sc.

Zlata Đurđević

Zlata Đurđević is a tenured professor of law at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb and visiting professor at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg, and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Split. She specializes in Criminal Procedural Law, International and European Criminal Law, Human Rights Law, International Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Organization of Judiciary and Psychiatric Law. She was visiting scholar at Yale Law School, Berkeley Law School, Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, the University of Augsburg (Germany), “Karl-Franzens” University of Graz (Austria), and at the Max-Planck-Institute (Germany). She is laureate of the International Justitia Award 2022 in the category achievements in the Academia that honors the most outstanding women in legal professions of the year.

Professor Đurđević holds a MPhil Degree in Criminology from the University of Cambridge and LL.M in Criminal Law and J.D. from the University of Zagreb. She passed the judicial state exam. She is the recipient of the most prestigious international awards, including the EU Marie Curie FP7 project, a Fulbright Visiting Scholarship, the Chevening Scholarship, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Austrian Exchange Service (OAD). She was a head of the Department of Criminal Procedural Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb for 13 years (2007-2014, 2016-2023) and president of the Commission for the Drafting of the Ordinance for the Protection of Students from Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Gender Discrimination at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, 2021-2022. She is fluent in English, proficient in German and French.

Professor Đurđević is a prominent member of several international and national scientific and legal associations. Since 2009 (re-elected in 2014 and 2019) she is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Organization of Penal Law (AIDP) which is the oldest association of specialists in penal law; since 2008, a contact point for Croatia in European Criminal Law Academic Network (ECLAN); Member of the Siracusa Board of Directors of the International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights from 2018-2021. She is president of the Croatian Association of European Criminal Law and was president of the Croatian Association of Criminal Sciences and Practice (2016-2020). She has been a member of the “Mika Tripalo” Center for Democracy since 2022, and vice-president of the scientific council since 2024. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Croatian Annual of Criminal Law since 2015.

As concerns membership of the public bodies of the Republic of Croatia she is a Member of the Judiciary Committee of the Croatian Parliament, 2021 to present; and was a member of the Commission for the Conflict of Interest, the State Prosecutor Council and the Commission for the Asylum. In recognition of her specialization in international criminal law, the then President of Croatia has in 2013 appointed her as his personal envoy to work on the Statute of the Regional Commission for Establishing the Facts about War Crimes and Other Gross Violations of Human Rights Committed on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia (RECOM).

Professor Đurđević has had occasion to serve many times in a consultancy capacity to governmental, judicial, public and non-governmental organizations in fields ranging from human rights to compliance with international and European law. She was cited by the European Court of Human Rights and acted as an expert witness in the UNCITRAL and ICSID arbitrations. The Republic of Croatia has twice nominated her as candidate for judge of the International Criminal Court and the Advisory Committee on Nomination of Judges gave twice a positive opinion about her expertise.

She was a President of the Expert Committee drafting a new Croatian Criminal Procedural Code and a member of the expert teams of the Ministry of Justice, drafting various legislative acts in area of criminal justice and European criminal law as well as a member of the negotiation teams of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during Croatia’s accession to the European Union. She teaches, organizes and participates in the development of educational programs for the judiciary and Bar Association.

Professor Đurđević has published eight books, over 80 articles (in Croatia and abroad), and presented at over 100 national and international conferences in the country and abroad. She was a leader in 15 scientific research projects, 11 of which were international and four domestics, and participated as a researcher in 13 scientific projects.

She is recognized as a leading scholar in the fields of human rights law, international criminal law and criminal and procedural law, as her academic and professional career clearly demonstrates. She is not only a top national expert on human rights and criminal justice issues, but also well-known in professional and scientific circles in the region, in Europe, and internationally. She has published extensively in the fields of human rights, international and European criminal law, and criminal procedural law and criminal law. She actively participates in public debates in Croatia and her high reputation has been recognized in professional and public life in the Republic of Croatia and abroad.