Research assistant Elias Demant Werner Thomsen successfully defended his master’s thesis on Norwegian law firms’ pro bono litigation for asylum seekers, inspired by his work on the PROBONO project.
Nina Reiners, professor at the Faculty of Law and PROBONO principal investigator, was hosted for a one-week research stay at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS). As part of her stay, she participated in the workshop “Critical Minerals, Energy and Conflict”, held on 8 June 2026 at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The workshop was jointly organized by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo and IPSS under the ARUA-Guild CoRE collaboration.
Since the start of the year, PROBONO project leader Nina Reiners has participated in a range of research visits, workshops, and professional convenings across Europe. Through presentations, discussions, and collaborative exchanges, she has shared insights from ongoing research while engaging with scholars and practitioners working on issues that the PROBONO project is investigating. These activities have contributed to both the development of new research partnerships and a deeper understanding of the evolving role of commercial legal actors in International Relations.
Addressing the largest annual gathering of international pro bono practitioners, PROBONO project leader Nina Reiners introduced and moderated the opening panel of the PILnet 2025 Global Forum, which took place November 11-13 in Rome.
The PROBONO team recently invited students to join an inspiring career event, where they got to learn about pro bono work directly from practitioners and specialists. Students were excited to network, and to explore how pro bono can be a part of their future careers.
Prof. Nina Reiners recently participated in EISA’s 18th Pan-European Conference (PEC). This year’s conference theme asked whether there is something fundamentally broken in politics, and provided the backdrop for a variety of interesting conversations. Prof. Reiners spoke on several panels, presenting the draft article “Pro Bono as Ritualistic Practice” as part of the discussion.
Amidst shifts in state power, rising nationalist populism, and increasingly frequent transnational crises, human rights advocacy is facing hard(er) times in global governance institutions. In her recent contribution to Ethics & International Affairs, the journal of the Carnegie Council, PROBONO project leader Nina Reiners analyzes the challenges these institutional dynamics pose for the protection of human rights.
The workshop, “When for Profit Goes Pro Bono – Motivations, Practices and Impact,” took place on 16-17 June 2025, in Paris. Pro bono scholars and practitioners jointly discussed the growing role of private actors in politics and law. The workshop was co-organized by Nina Reiners and Lola Avril.
Nina Reiners, Professor at the NCHR at UiO and PI of the PROBONO project, presented a paper titled “Pro Bono Advocacy, Private Law Firms, and the Right to a Healthy Environment in Ethiopia” as well as a paper co-authored with Ellen Vrålstad on “Pro Bono and Private Power in Global Governance”.
Ellen Vrålstad (RA) recently visited Harvard University to present the research paper 'Conflicts of Interest: Private Law Firms in Global Governance’.
Nina Reiners (PI) and Ellen Vrålstad (RA) presented the first draft paper of the PROBONO project in the research group “Global challenges to human rights”. The paper is titled 'Conflicts of Interest: Private Law Firms in Global Governance’, an abstract can be found below.
Workshop: "When For Profit Goes Pro Bono - Motivations, Practices and Impact," 16-17 June 2025. Organized by Lola Avril and Nina Reiners in collaboration with Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris.
The European Research Council has awarded Nina Reiners, associate professor at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for 2024.
