C.V. | Publications | Project
Research Interests
Refugee law, immigration law, statelessness, EU law, human rights law, international law, public law
Research Area(s)
Europe
Profile
Katia Bianchini is a research fellow in the Law and Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. She holds a law degree from the University of Pavia (Italy), an LLM in Comparative Laws from the University of San Diego (California, USA), and a PhD in Law from the University of York (UK). Her doctoral thesis provided an empirical and legal analysis of how the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is implemented in ten EU states. She has also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen). Before engaging in research, she practised immigration and refugee law for ten years in the UK and the USA.
Bianchini has published in the field of refugee law and statelessness. Her current research builds on her expertise in refugee law, statelessness and human rights.
Why Law and Anthropology?
Research at the interface of law and anthropology is crucial to gain a better understanding of the complex dynamics and multiple forces that shape and develop refugee and immigration law. In this specific field, anthropology offers methodological tools that enable us to go far beyond black letter law. In my research, the added value of an anthropological approach lies in empirically exploring legal issues and appreciating how law works in practice, thus allowing for a more holistic assessment of the gaps that exist between abstract law and its implementation.