Professor Rilka Dragneva-Lewers

Dr Rilka Dragneva-Lewers

Birmingham Law School
Professor of International Legal Studies
Associate Dean 麻豆精选 Law School

Contact details

Telephone
0121 414 3146
Fax
0121 414 3585
Email
r.dragnevalewers@bham.ac.uk
Address
Birmingham Law School
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Rilka Dragneva-Lewers is Professor of International Legal Studies at Birmingham Law School. She works on regional integration, EU external policy, legal reform and international diffusion of norms with a special reference to Eastern Europe. Her recent publications focus on Eurasian economic integration and its overlaps with EU initiatives in the post-Soviet region. Rilka’s work has strong comparative and interdisciplinary elements. Her expertise in the field has enabled her to engage in interactions with policy-makers and leading think-tanks, law reform technical assistance projects, and professional training activities.

Rilka is a member of the editorial board of Review of Central and East European Law and International Journal of Law and Management.

Qualifications

  • LLB (Sofia University, Bulgaria)
  • MA (Sussex)
  • PhD (Sussex)

Biography

Rilka Dragneva-Lewers joined the Birmingham Law School in September 2012. Previous to that she was at the School of Law, University of Manchester (2006-2012) and Department of Law, University of Leiden (The Netherlands) (1999-2006). Rilka has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Sussex (2001) the Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Italy (2003 and 2004). Between 1999 and 2004 she was also actively engaged in technical assistance programmes and consulting activities in Eastern Europe for the World Bank, IFC and the EBRD. She was a legal counsel of a large foreign trade company before embarking on her academic career.聽

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in supervising high quality postgraduate research projects in the following areas:

Preferential trade agreements and regional blocs; Comparative regional economic integration law; Eurasian economic integration
EU Neighbourhood Policy and external relations with Eastern Europe and Eurasia; EU-Russia relations
Legal reform; Law and Development; External promotion of rule of law and good governance
Comparative Corporate Governance

Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

Research

Professor Dragneva鈥檚 recent research focuses on regional integration in the post-Soviet region, EU鈥檚 Eastern policy and the related critical issues of legality and institutional design, overlap and compatibility of integration regimes, and implementation of international obligations.

Rilka has participated in a number of high profile research projects, including:聽H2020 EU-funded collaborative project 鈥�: The EU and Eastern Partnership Countries - An Inside-Out Analysis and Strategic Assessment鈥櫬�(May 2016- April 2019),聽the AHRC-funded project 鈥�Ukraine鈥檚 Hidden Tragedy: Understanding the Outcomes of Population Displacement from the Country鈥檚 War-Torn Regions鈥� (November 2016- July 2018), and the聽ESRC-funded project 鈥楻ussia and the EU in the Common Neighbourhood: Export of Governance and Legal (In) Compatibility鈥� (January 2013-September 2016).

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Dimitrova, A & Dragneva, R 2022, '', JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies.

Dragneva, R & Hartwell, C 2022, '', Politics and Governance, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 95-105.

Dragneva, R & Hartwell, C 2020, '', Post-Communist Economies.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Dragneva, R & Wolczuk, K 2024, . in M Rabinovych & A Pintsch (eds), Ukraine's Thorny Path to the EU: From 鈥淚ntegration without Membership鈥� to 鈥淚ntegration through War鈥�. 1 edn, Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 43-66.

Dragneva, R 2021, . in R Petrov, S Lorenzmeier & C Vedder (eds), EU External Relations Law: Shared Competences and Shared Values in Agreements Between the EU and Its Eastern Neighbourhood. Springer, pp. 229-252.

Dragneva-Lewers, R 2018, . in R Howse, H Ruiz-Fabri, G Ulfstein & MQ Zang (eds), The case of the economic court of the CIS. Studies on International Courts and Tribunals, Cambridge University Press.

Chapter

Dragneva, R 2021, . in S Wegren & F Nilssen (eds), Russia鈥檚 Role in the Contemporary International Agri-Food Trade System. 1 edn, Palgrave Advances in Bioeconomy: Economics and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 225-251.

Comment/debate

Dragneva, R 2022, '', Russian Analytical Digest, vol. 275, pp. 16-19.

Discussion paper

Dragneva, R 2019 '' IDEAS Report, LSE, pp. 34-38. <>

Other contribution

Wolczuk, K & Dragneva, R 2022, . Chatham House. <>

Wolczuk, K & Dragneva, R 2022, . Chatham House. <>

Wolczuk, K, Dragneva, R & Wallace, J 2022, . Chatham House. <>

Dragneva, R 2019, . EU-STRAT. <>

Working paper

Jonavicius, L, Delcour, L, Dragneva, R & Wolczuk, K 2019 ''. <>

Dragneva, R, Delcour, L, Jaroszewicz, M, Kardas, S & Ungureanu, C 2018 '' No. 8 edn, EU-STRAT. <>

Expertise

Russia and the EU in the Common Neighbourhood: Export of Governance and Legal (In)Compatibility

Eurasian economic integration (post Soviet countries)

EU initiatives in the post-Soviet region

Legal aspects of trade with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union