معرفی
Gwinyai Machona serves as a Researcher at the Chair for Public Law and Comparative Law within the Faculty of Law at Humboldt University of Berlin, a position held continuously since July 2020 following prior service as a Student Assistant (2018-2020) at the same institution.
Educational qualifications include:
- Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from King's College London (2014-2016)
- Law Studies at Humboldt University Berlin culminating in the First Legal State Examination (2016-2020)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Historical Studies from the University of Oxford (2021-2022, completed part-time)
Research concentrates on colonial legal history, critical legal theories, and international administrative law, with particular emphasis on decolonial perspectives in legal epistemology. Current work interrogates the intersections of law, power, and historical justice, especially regarding cultural restitution, legal definitions of discrimination, and the legacy of colonial dispossession. Methodologically, this involves archival analysis of colonial treaties, critical examination of legal canons, and interdisciplinary approaches bridging law with historical and cultural studies.
Publications from 2022-2024 reveal consistent thematic focus on postcolonial legal accountability, with recurring analysis of German colonial practices in Africa, restitution of cultural property, and critiques of antisemitism/racism in legal frameworks. The body of work demonstrates methodological innovation through museum archive analysis and diachronic responsibility models, while maintaining practical relevance for contemporary legal debates on historical injustice.
Scientific recognition includes:
- Helmut Coing Scholarship (2023) supporting Visiting Research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory
Mentorship activities feature (Co-)Coaching of Humboldt University's Jessup International Law Moot Court team (2020-2022), guiding students through complex public international law competitions. While no external research grants are documented in the provided materials, institutional affiliation provides research infrastructure through the Chair for Public Law and Comparative Law. Collaborative work includes joint publications with scholars like Yann LeGall and Richard Tsogang Fossi.
As core faculty within Humboldt's legal research ecosystem, Machona contributes to the Chair's expertise in public law while maintaining connections to the International Rule of Law research group where earlier work was conducted. Current projects appear focused on expanding the 'Atlas der Abwesenheit' restitution framework through critical legal theory applications.
