Gunay Ismayilova

• LLB, Baku State University (2000-2005) Azerbaijan
• LLM, Baku State University (2005-2008) distinction, Azerbaijan
• MA, International Anti-Corruption Academy (2015-2017) Austria

I am a second year student at Birmingham Law School. I have a bachelor's and master's degree from Baku State University, Azerbaijan. My second master's degree from the International Anti-Corruption Academy, which I received in 2015-2017 while working as a prosecutor, was aimed at anti-corruption research, a specific direction related to my work. As for my professional experience, I started working as a court clerk, and then, having successfully passed the exams, I started working in the prosecutor's office of my country. Despite 15 years of experience as a prosecutor, during this time, due to my academic interest in human rights from the point of view of the ECtHR, I published several articles in the journal of the prosecutor's office. Eventually, my professional interest in criminal law from a human rights perspective led me to begin my study as a researcher at the University of Birmingham.

PhD title

The ECtHR’s standard of proof in determining a substantive violation of the right to life: key principles and their concretisation in case-law on the right to life against Azerbaijan

Supervisors

Professor Natasa Mavronicola and Dr Meghan Campbell

My research concerns the ECtHR's standard of proof in determining a substantive violation of the right to life. Given that the ECtHR claims to be specific in a different approach to the standard of proof, I am going to consider the standard of proof in right to life cases in terms of the main principles that the ECtHR refers to in its questions of proof. The study of the standard of proof through a detailed analysis of the case law against Azerbaijan on the right to life in terms of its basic principles can reveal not only the issues of consistency of the ECtHR approach to it, but also look at the compatibility of the ECtHR in its standard of proof with the declared and applied principles in its functioning.

• Certified Trainer of the Council of Europe Programme on Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP)