Dr. Anna Wójcik
Dr. Anna Wójcik

assistant professor

dr Anna Wójcik

Doctor of Laws, assistant professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and post-doc in the international research project MEMOCRACY The Challenge of Populist Memory Politics for Europe: Towards Effective Responses to Militant Legislation on the Past, funded by Volkswagen Stiftung (2021-24).

In 2019-2021, research assistant at the Department of Constitutional Law and European Studies, ILS PAS. 

In 2016-2019, research assistant at the Poznań Human Rights Centre, ILS PAS.

Dr. Wójcik completed her Master of Arts in Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw (2015) and Master of Arts in Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (2016). She also completed her Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Cultural Studies as part of the Interdepartmental Individual Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw (2012).

Her dissertation entitled “Laws affecting historical memory from the human rights perspective” discussed restrictions to the rights and freedoms of individuals in the context of historical policy from the international human rights law perspective. Dr. Wójcik defended her dissertation at ILS PAN in October 2021. The research for the dissertation was supported by the “Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspective MELA” project (2016-2019), funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area. 

Dr. Wójcik was a fellow of the Re: Constitution programme (2021-2022) and an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Democracy of the Central European University and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (2022). She has also conducted research as a fellow of the Rethink.CEE programme of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (2021-2022), and a junior visiting researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague (2018).

She taught an undergraduate course in the Artes Liberales Institute, University of Warsaw (2018).

Since 2017, she has been preparing reports analysing the state of democracy in Poland for the Freedom House. She has also worked with Article 19. As a research assistant she prepared analyses on the independence of the judiciary in Poland and Hungary for Prof. Wojciech Sadurski, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney (2020).

Dr. Wójcik is co-founder and coordinator of the Wiktor Osiatyński Archive and Rule of Law in Poland monitoring projects. She writes about the rule of law for OKO.press portal and comments as an expert for Polish and international press.

Main research areas:

  • rights of memory
  • European mechanisms for the protection of the rule of law
  • European constitutionalism
  • democratic erosion and re-democratisation
  • freedom of speech, media freedom and pluralism

Selected works:

  • Journal articles

    • Grabowska-Moroz, B., Wójcik, A. (2021). Reframing LGBT rights advocacy in the context of the rule of law backsliding: The case of Poland. East European Journal of Society and Politics, 7(4), 85-103.
    • Wójcik, A. (2019). Reckoning with the Communist Past in Poland Thirty Years After the Regime Change in the Light of the European Convention on Human Rights. Polish Yearbook of International Law, (39), 135-157.
    • Wójcik, A. (2019). European Court of Human Rights, freedom of expression and debating the past and history. Problemy Współczesnego Prawa Międzynarodowego, Europejskiego i Porównawczego, 17.
    • Gliszczyńska-Grabias, A., Baranowska, G., Wójcik, A. (2018). Law-secured narratives of the past in Poland in light of international human rights law standards. Polish Yearbook of International Law, 38, 59-72.
    • Belavusau, U., Wójcik, A. (2018). La criminalisation de l’expression historique en Pologne: la loi mémorielle de 2018 [Criminalizing historical expression in Poland: the memory law of 2018]. Archives de politique criminelle, (1), 175-188.
    • Wójcik, A. (2019). Prezentacja przetworzonego Znaku Polski Walczącej w ramach zgromadzeń publicznych, Państwo i Prawo nr 12, 24-38.
    • Wójcik, A. (2018), Glosa do orzeczenia ETPCZ z 3 września 2015 r. w sprawie Soro versus Estonia, Pismo Adwokatury Polskiej, nr 5/2018, s. 81-87.

    Chapters

    • Wójcik, A. (2021). Stanowiska i komentarze polskich władz wobec orzeczeń Trybunału Sprawiedliwości i działań instytucji unijnych dotyczących praworządności w Polsce w: J. Barcz, A. Grzelak, R., Szyndlauer (red.) Problem praworządności w Polsce w świetle orzecznictwa Trybunału Sprawiedliwości UE (2018– 2020), Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa, Warsaw 2021, s. 989-1026.
    • Belavusau, U., Wójcik, A. (2019), Posponer los cambios de nombre de las calles tras la transición a la democracia: lecciones legales de Polonia, w: Guixe, J., Allons Carbalees, J., Consesa, R. (red.), Diez años de leyes y políticas de memoria (2007- 2017), Madrid: Ediciones La Catarata, 27-39.

    Reviews

    • Wójcik, A. (2019). Recenzja: Gordon, Gregory, S. Atrocity Speech Law. Foundation, Fragmentation, Fruition. Państwo i Prawo, nr 3, 143-145.

    Translations

    • She has translated Wojciecha Sadurski’s book entitled Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown (OUP 2019) published in Polish as Polski kryzys konstytucyjny (Liberte, 2020).

    Blogposts

    • Wójcik, A. (2022). Keeping the Past and the Present Apart The CJEU, the Rule of Law Crisis, and Decommunization. Verfassungsblog. 26 kwietnia, <https://verfassungsblog.de/keeping-the-past-and- the-present-apart/>.
    • Wójcik, A. (2021). Historians on Trial. Verfassungsblog. 11 marca, <https://verfassungsblog.de/historians- on-trial/>.
    • Wójcik, A. (2021), On the prosecutor general’s motion to the Constitutional Tribunal regarding the European Convention (case K 7/21), Rule of Law in Poland, 19 stycznia , https://ruleoflaw.pl/on- the-prosecutor-generals-motion-to-the-constitutional-tribunal-regarding-the-european convention-case-k-7-21/.
    • Wójcik, A. (2020). Memory Laws in Russia and Other Restrictions to Freedom of Expression, Legal Dialogue, 9 października , <https://legal-dialogue.org/memory-laws-in-russia-and-other-restrictions-on- freedom-of-expression>.
    • Wó A. (2020), Judges should be fully insulated from any sort of pressure. Interview with CJEU President Koen Lenaerts, Verfassungsblog, 30 January, https://verfassungsblog.de/judges- should-be-fully-insulated-from-any-sort-of-pressure/.
    • Wójcik, A. (2018). Memory laws and security, Verfassungsblog, 5 stycznia. <https://verfassungsblog.de/ memory-laws-and-security/>.
    • Baranowska G. and Wójcik, A. (2017). In defense of Europe’s memory laws, Free Speech Debate, 1 listopada. <http://freespeechdebate.com/discuss/in-defence-of- europes-memory-laws/