Team
Elżbieta Kużelewska
University of Bialystok (Poland), Faculty of Law
Prof. Elżbieta Kużelewska is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok (Poland), where she has served as Vice-Dean for Science since October 2019. She holds a PhD and a habilitation in political science, and she is the Head of the Centre for Direct Democracy Studies (CDDS). Her research interests focus on constitutional law, direct democracy, human rights, and contemporary political systems.
Prof. Kużelewska is the Principal Investigator of the research project The Right Not to Use the Internet: Observatory (NCN OPUS LAP 26), conducted by a Polish–Belgian team from the University of Bialystok and Ghent University. She is also a researcher in the NCN OPUS LAP 24 project Risk as a Subjective Phenomenon: Integrating Cognitive Science into the Concept of Risk in European Data Protection Law in cooperation with Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Routledge Current Debates in European Integration book series and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the European Integration and Democracy Series (Intersentia: Cambridge–Antwerp–Chicago). In March 2025, she held a visiting professorship at the University of Macerata (Italy). She has also taught at Michigan State University School of Law and has been an invited lecturer at various international summer schools and academic programs across Europe and the United States.
Find her publishing record, experience and achievements through ORCID
Team PL: Principal Investigator
Contact: e.kuzelewska@uwb.edu.pl
Artur Olechno
University of Bialystok (Poland), Faculty of Law
Artur Olechno is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok (Poland), where he has served as Dean since 2024. He works in the department of constitutional law and specialises in comparative constitutional law, systems of government, especially of Eastern European countries. He is the author of more than 100 publications on constitutional law issues. Artur Olechno is an expert of the Polish Accreditation Commission and the Higher Education Quality Agency (Latvia). He is a member of the editorial committee or scientific council in Polish and foreign scientific journals. He is a member of the Polish Society of Constitutional Law and Polish-Ukrainian Club of Constitutionalists. Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia.
Find his publishing record, experience and achievements through ORCID
Team PL: contractor
Contact: a.olechno@uwb.edu.pl
Michał Ożóg
University of Bialystok (Poland), Faculty of Law
PhD in social sciences in the discipline of legal sciences (2019). Assistant professor at the Department of Constitutional Law at the University of Bialystok. He graduated with distinction from: law studies (2014), first-cycle administrative studies (2011) and second-cycle (2013) at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
His research interests include issues related to human rights, including freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the impact of new technologies on the catalogue of fundamental rights and freedoms in the national and international dimension. His achievements include over 50 scientific publications in the field of constitutional law, religious law, the history of Polish law and the law on administrative proceedings. Author of a doctoral dissertation entitled Guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion in medical entities in Poland.
Participant of research projects and project manager Establishing patrons of local government units in the local and regional tradition in the Science for Society competition. In the past, co-coordinator of the project Digitalized! Society in the Age of Digital Revolution at the Jagiellonian University as part of UNA Europa.
Member of the Board and Secretary of the Polish Society of Law on Religious Denominations for the term (2024 - 2028), as well as a regular member of the Polish Society of Constitutional Law.
Find his publishing record, experience and achievements through ORCID
Team PL: contractor
Contact: m.ozog@uwb.edu.pl
Radosław Puchta
University of Bialystok (Poland), Faculty of Law
Radosław Puchta gained his PhD in Law in 2017 and since 2022 he works in Białystok at the Faculty of Law as an assistant professor (adiunkt) within the Department of Constitutional Law. His research focuses on institutional and procedural aspects regarding the protection of basic human rights, and specifically on the constitutional review of laws. Since 2009, he works also as a law clerk within the Legal Service of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.
Radosław Puchta is author or coauthor of several publications published in legal journals and Routledge.
Radosław Puchta is a member of the Polish Constitutional Law Society (since 2019) and the Centre for Polish-French Legal Thought at the Polish Academy of Sciences (since 2024). He regularly visits French academic centres, such as the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University (in 2020) and Aix-Marseille University (in 2024).
In his spare time, he likes gardening, good cinema and literature (especially reportage).
Find his publishing record, experience and achievements through ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3562-1136).
Team PL: contractor
Contact: r.puchta@uwb.edu.pl
Karolina Ferreira Fernandes
University of Bialystok (Poland), Faculty of International Relations
M.A. is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Bialystok, affiliated with the Faculty of International Relations. Her academic work focuses on social psychology, internet sociology, and the role of civil society in contemporary democracies. She has published and presented on topics such as digital disinformation, online political manipulation, cyberactivism, and the impact of new media on democratic participation.
Since 2003, she has been actively involved in the Erasmus+ programme, coordinating international exchanges and fostering institutional partnerships. She currently serves as the Erasmus+ coordinator at the Faculty of International Relations, where she manages student and staff mobility and promotes international cooperation.
From 2021 to 2024, she held the position of the Rector’s Plenipotentiary for Gender Equality at the University of Bialystok, where she was responsible for advancing inclusive policies and supporting equal opportunities in academia.
She is also deeply engaged in mentoring and supporting young people through educational tutoring programmes, helping students develop critical thinking, civic awareness, and academic independence. Her professional experience combines academic research, educational leadership, and a long-standing commitment to youth development and European academic cooperation.
Team PL: contractor
Contact: k.fernandes@uwb.edu.pl
Eva Lievens
Ghent University, Faculty of Law and Criminology
Eva Lievens is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University, where she leads the research group Law & Technology. She is a member of the Human Rights Centre, the UGent Human Rights Research Network, the Crime, Criminology & Criminal Policy Consortium, DELTA (Digital Innovation for both Individuals and Society) and ANSER (Academic Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Policy).
A recurrent focus in her research relates to the legal impact of the design and deployment of technology in today’s society, human and children’s rights in the digital environment, and the use of alternative regulatory instruments, such as self- and co-regulation to regulate tech phenomena (e.g. Artificial Intelligence).
In January 2019, together with Ingrida Milkaite, she was awarded the Stefano Rodotà Award by the Council of Europe for their groundbreaking research into the child’s right to privacy and data protection in the digital age.
Eva is a member of the Chamber for impartiality and the protection of minors of the Flemish Regulator for the Media, and of the Steering Board of the Flemish Knowledge Centre for Media Literacy (www.mediawijs.be). She has been a member of the Management Committee of the COST Action Global Digital Human Rights Network, a member advisory committees of EU funded projects and various working groups advising the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the federal and Flemish government (such as the Belgian Expert group on fake news and online disinformation). Since January 2018, she is a member of Ghent University’s Research Council.
At Ghent University, Eva teaches ‘European Law & ICT’, ‘European Media Law’, ‘Cybercrime, Technology & Surveillance’, and ‘Data Protection Law’. She is the associate editor for the International Encyclopaedia of Laws - Media Law (edited by Prof. Peggy Valcke), and a member of the Editorial Board of Computer Law & Security Review (WoS) and the IT & Law Series (T.M.C. Asser Press).
Find her publishing record, experience and achievements at https://www.ugent.be/re/mpor/law-technology/en/contact/evalievenseng and https://biblio.ugent.be/publication?text=%22eva+lievens%22.
Team BE: Principal Investigator
Contact: eva.lievens@ugent.be
Valerie Verdoodt
Ghent University, Faculty of Law and Criminology
Valerie Verdoodt is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University, where she is a member of the research group Law and Technology and the Human Rights Centre. Valerie co-teaches ‘European law and ICT’ and ‘European Media Law’ at Ghent University, and is a Guest Lecturer on 'Children’s rights in the digital environment' at the Georg August University of Göttingen (since 2019).
Her research focuses on the legal and fundamental rights questions originating from the development of new media and technology, in particular (but not exclusively) regarding the protection and participation of children online. Her current research project ‘Children’s rights and the monetisation of play’ focuses on children’s rights in the context of (new) forms of commercial exploitation online (e.g. commercialisation of play through datafication, gam(bl)ing, digital child labour).
From 2019-2021, Valerie was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Law Department of the London School of Economics (LSE), where she co-taught 'Digital Rights', 'IT and the Law', 'Cyberlaw' and 'EU Law'. Prior to joining the LSE, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for IT and IP Law at KU Leuven and a lecturer in 'Electronic Contracts Law' on the IP and IT Law LLM at KU Leuven, Campus Brussels. Valerie holds a joint PhD from KU Leuven and Ghent University. In her PhD thesis, ‘Children’s Rights and Advertising Literacy in the Digital Era', she focused on the role of children’s rights in regulating new advertising techniques. During this time, she also worked as a legal expert on children’s rights and digital advertising for the World Health Organisation and the Council of Europe. In November 2018, she was a Visiting Researcher at eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University.
Valerie is also an editor of the International Encyclopaedia of Laws – Media Law, and a member of the Working Group on unhealthy food marketing and children of the Superior Health Council of Belgium. From 2016-2020, she was a member and Vice-Chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Media ("SARC Sectorraad Media"), the official advisory body of the Flemish Minister for Media.
Find her publishing record, experience and achievements at https://research.ugent.be/web/person/valerie-verdoodt-0/publications/en and through ORCID.
Team BE: contractor
Contact: valerie.verdoodt@ugent.be
Suay Ergin
Ghent University, Faculty of Law and Criminology
Suay is a PhD candidate in the Law & Technology research group at Ghent University and affiliated with Department of Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law and Business Law. She is also a member of the Human Rights Centre.
Her research focuses on the emerging fundamental human rights to use the internet and the right not to use the internet, with particular attention to vulnerable groups. Her work includes establishing and contributing to the European Observatory dedicated to these rights, which will map, monitor and critically assess ongoing legal and policy developments on these rights in Council of Europe Member States.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Suay worked at ARTICLE 19, an international human rights organisation specialising in freedom of expression and information (2018-2025). Her work focused on online and offline censorship, with an emphasis on accountability and transparency in social media platforms across Europe and Central Asia.
Suay holds an LL.M. (cum laude) in International and European Law from Ghent University (2018) and a Bachelor of Law from Istanbul University (2012). Prior to her LL.M. degree, she practiced law as legal counsel at an international renewable energy company, advising on corporate law and regulatory compliance. She is a qualified lawyer, and was admitted to the Turkish Bar in 2013.
Find her publishing record, experience and achievements through ORCID.
Team BE: PhD candidate
Contact: suay.ergin@ugent.be