Dr Ekaterina Aristova

Ekaterina (Katya) Aristova is an academic and lawyer specialising in business and human rights, climate change, and strategic litigation. Her research explores how private law doctrines are innovatively adapted across jurisdictions to address pressing global challenges, driving corporate accountability for human rights and environmental impacts. Her most recent book, Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: The Challenge of Jurisdiction (OUP 2024), builds on her PhD research at the University of Cambridge. She is also a co-editor of Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux (Hart Publishing 2022), Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations: A Handbook for Practitioners (Bonavero Institute of Human Rights 2022), and The Cambridge Handbook on Business and Human Rights Litigation (CUP forthcoming 2026).

Before joining Surrey Law School in 2025, Katya spent six years as a Research Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford). From 2025 to 2028, she will serve as an Inaugural Associate Fellow at the Bonavero Institute in recognition of her contribution to its work, culture, and development during her fellowship.

In 2024, Katya was appointed an Academic Fellow at Middle Temple in London for a five-year term, a position intended to strengthen connections between the bar and academia.

Prior to commencing her academic career, Katya practised corporate law, specialising in M&A transactions. She completed her training contract at White & Case’s Moscow office before spending seven years as a senior in-house lawyer at two leading Russian investment companies.