Masha Antokolskaia - Biography#

Masha Antokolskaia is full professor of private and family law at the Vrije University Amsterdam. Head of the Department of Private law and of the Amsterdam Centre of Family Law (ACFL).

Member of the Expert Group of the Commission on European Family Law (CEFL), since its establishment in 2001. In 2019 initiated a pan-European Family Law in Europe: Academic Network (FL-EUR) https://fl-eur.eu/, and has been elected its first chair. Co-founder and since 2019 Editor-in-Chief of the an international, full open-access, dabble-blind peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, multilingual Journal Family & Law http://www.familyandlaw.eu/, member of the Advisory & Editorial Board of Tijdschrift voor Privaatrecht and of the editorial boards of Tijdschrift voor Familie- en Jeugdrecht, Kutafin Law Review, Journal of Politics and Law and book series Familie & Recht. Co-founder and member of the board of the Flemish-Dutch Rethinking Network and co-founder of Dutch Alliance Family & Law.

Graduated in law in Moscow from the Law Institute (1986) and in Amsterdam from the University of Amsterdam (2000). Awarded a PhD at Moscow Law Institute (1988). In 2013 followed training in methodology of empirical research.

Form 1989 till 1998 taught civil and family law at Moscow State Law Academy. In 1993-1995 she was senior member of the Drafting team of 6 scholars, commissioned by the Russian Parliament with drafting the New Russian Family Code (in force since in 1996). In 1995 moved to the Netherlands.

Author of several monographs and handbooks and of more than 100 articles in English, Dutch and Russian. Organised many international and national conferences, e.g. 16th World Conference of ISFL in 2017 at the Vrije University Amsterdam. Invited to numerous international conferences as chair and/or invited speaker. Invited to PhD Commission in several European countries. Member of various commissions of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), awarding grants for academic research. Pioneered Empirical Legal Studies in the field of family law in the Netherlands. Won tenders for and conducted many several large legal-comparative and comparative-multidisciplinary research projects, commissioned by Dutch Governments, that had high academic and societal impact. Supervised various PhD students in the Netherlands and Russia.