Moa Bladini
About Moa Bladini
Dr Moa Bladini is an associate professor (docent) and senior lecturer in Criminal Law.
Research
My research fields are criminal law and criminal procedural law. Overarching themes in my research are power and justice, equality and gender equality, emotions and legal core values (autonomy, objectivity and rationality). Theoretical and methodological issues are central, and I have used critical discourse analysis, feminist theory, and have worked extensively interdisciplinarily in recent years.
My primary research areas encompass criminal law and criminal procedural law. Central themes within my work include power and justice, equality and gender equality, as well as the interplay between emotions and core legal values (autonomy, objectivity and rationality). I place particular emphasis on theoretical and methodological considerations, employing approaches such as critical discourse analysis, sociology of emotions and feminist theory. In recent years, I have also increasingly adopted an interdisciplinary perspective.
Current research projects
2025–2027, I am a researcher in the project Blind Justice? Comparing Voluntary and Coercive Rape Legislations. The project is led by Professor Åsa Wettergren from the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg. Other participants include Associate Professor Sara Uhnoo, Associate Professor Anton Törnberg, and Dr Hans Ekblad, all affiliated with the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg.
2023-2026 I am the PI of the project Autonomy of the Judge in theory and practice – strengthening the independent judiciary, financed by Vetenskapsrådet [Swedish Research Council]. The project will be carried out with Dr Wanna Svedberg Andersson and Associate Professor Sara Uhnoo. More info on https://www.gu.se/forskning/domarens-autonomi-i-teori-och-praktik-for-domstolens-sjalvstandighet-och-oberoende
Together with professor Eva-Maria Svensson I have written the book Gender-Based Hate Speech: Legislation and Public Policy Making, to be published by Routledge, early June 2025. The book builds on the results from the GENHA Project, mentioned below under finished research projects.
Finished research projects
2020-2024 I was a researcher in the project Rape or consent? Effects of the new rape legislation on legal reasoning and practice. The project is led by Professor Åsa Wettergren, and co-researcher is Assistant Professor Sara Uhnoo at the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg. Our results will be presented in the book Challenging Judicial Core Values: Consent-based Rape Legislation in Practice, to be published by Bristol University Press, in June 2025. More info on https://www.gu.se/forskning/valdtakt-eller-samtycke-effekter-av-den-nya-valdtaktslagstiftningen-pa-juridiskt-tankande-och-praktik
2021-2023 I was the research leader of the Swedish part of the comparative project Profiling Nordic Perpetrators of Gendered Online Abuse: Who, Why and How to Curb the Harm. The project was carried out together with senior lecturer Wanna Svedberg Andersson, under the regime of NORDREF and financed by NIKK.
The project on Contructing Objectivity, mentioned below, is part of a larger comparative research project JUSTEMOTIONS, led by Professor Stina Bergman Blix, funded by ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 2018-2023. More info on https://www.soc.uu.se/research/justemotions/.
2020-2021 I participated in the comparative project GENHA Hate Speech, Gender, Social Networks and Political Parties within the programme Justice Programme (JUST) Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC). I worked with the Swedish part of the project together with professor Eva-Maria Svensson, Department of Law, University of Gothenburg. The project was led by professor Noelia Igareda González, at Universitat Autonoma Barcelona (UAB).
During the period 2017-2019, I worked in the interdisciplinary research project to Construct Objectivity - Emotions in Legal Decision-making together with Professor Åsa Wettergren, Department of Sociology and Work Science at University of Gothenburg, Professor Stina Bergman Blix, Department of Sociology, Uppsala University (PI), and Dr. Nina Törnqvist, the Department of Criminology at Stockholm University. The project wss funded by the Swedish Research Council.
A shorter assignment during the autumn 2016 until spring 2017: The Report Hatred and Threats Online - a Survey of the Legal Regulation in the Nordic Countries on behalf of NIKK and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The report was published in May 2017.
Other research activities
I am the co-organizer, with Dr Matilda Arvidsson, of the seminar series Feminist Voices in Law with hybrid format lectures every first Tuesday of the month:
- May 7, 2024: Jennifer Nedelsky on 'Revaluing Care: Part Time for All and More Than Human Constitutionalism':
- June 4, 2024: Eva-Maria Svensson on 'The Nordic states’ contribution to the shaping of EU gender equality law and policy'
- 4 October 2024: Usha Natarajan on 'No Coward Soul is Mine: #MeToo in Academia'
- 4 December 2024: Rohini Sen on 'TWAIL Feminisms: Divergent Praxis, Contingent Subjects'
- 7 January 2025: Nicola Lacey on 'Revisiting Feminist Legal Theory'
I am the co-host, with Prof. Håkan Gustafsson, of Prof. Jennifer Nedelsky, Visiting Professor through the Carl and Thecla Lamberg Visiting Professorship. Professor Nedelsky is an internationally renowned scholar in law and political theory, with expertise spanning areas such as human rights, environmental law and indigenous rights. Together we host a seminar series running from December 2024 to May 2025, Human-Earth Relations, which address cross-disciplinary themes around sustainability and Earth-human relations.
Supervision PhD Students
Finished
Assistant supervisor since June 2013 to doctoral candidate Erik Björling (now Dr.) working on a project with the working title A legal narratological study of argumentation and legal expression of civil process.
Ongoing
Assistant supervisor since September 2015 to doctoral candiate Mikael Bernardini working on a reseach project titled Criminalization of poverty - A Study of Criminal Law's Individualization, Delineation and Development. Planned for final seminar in the end of 2023.
Assistant supervisor since autumn 2021 to doktoral candidate (in sociology) Marie Sundström working on the project The Real Rape - Application of the Swedish Rape Legislation 1965-2022 . The project is financed by the Swedish Crime Victim Authority and is part of the project Rape or Consent.
Assistant supervisor since autumn 2023 to doctoral candidate Thomasine Franke Rydén, working on a project Between Democracy and Repression - legal changes in uncertain times, at the Department of Law, Umeå University.
Assistant supervisor since spring 2024 to doctoral candidate Erik Berglund, working on a project Sexual Offenses, at the School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences, Örebro University.
Teaching
My teaching includes criminal law as well as criminal procedure law. The teaching comprises lectures in both larger and smaller forms, seminars, supervision of essays and examinations in various forms.
I supervise and examine thesis projects on the law programme, I participate in the courses for PhD students and I have been part of the education of judges arranged by the Judicial Academy.
On other web sites
Research areas
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure Law
- Theory and Methodology in Legal Research
- Critical legal theory, and Gender theory
Teaching areas
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure Law
- Legal theory and research methods
Selected publications
Uhnoo, S., Wettergren, Å. och Bladini, M. (2024) It could be my son! 'Himpathy' and the male fear defence in rape trials, in Journal of Law and Society, 51 (4), 562-585.
Uhnoo, S., Erixon, S. & Bladini, M. (2024) The wave of consent-based rape laws in Europe. The wave of consent-based rape laws in Europe, in International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 77.
Sara Uhnoo, Bladini, Moa & Wettergren, Åsa (2023) “Ethnography behind closed doors – negotiating access to rape trials”, in Flower L. and Klosterkamp S. (Eds.) Courtroom Ethnography: Exploring contemporary approaches, fieldwork and challenges, Macmillan Palgrave 2023.
Moa Bladini, Sara Uhnoo & Åsa Wettergren (2023) 'It sounds like lived experience. On empathy in rape trials' i International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice.
Moa Bladini & Stina Bergman Blix (2022) ”The Judge under Pressure. Fostering objectivity by leaving the myth of dispassion” i Giannoupoulos, D. & McDermott Rees, Y. (Red.) Challenges to judicial independence in times of crisis, in Proceedings of the British Academy' volume on Judicial Independence 2022.
Lisa Wallin, Sara Uhnoo, Åsa Wettergren, & Moa Bladini (2021) Capricious credibility – legal assessments of voluntariness in Swedish negligent rape judgements, in Nordic Journal of Criminology, 22 (1), 3-22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2578983X.2021.1898128
Wanna Svedberg Andersson & Moa Bladini (2021), ‘Autonomy and Beyond – Voluntariness in the Light of Lived Autonomy’, Special issue Dead or Alive? Contemproary and Future Approaches to Nordic Critical Legal Theory, in Retfærd, Nordic Journal of Law and Justice 3, 35-49, 2021.
Moa Bladini & Wanna Svedberg Andersson (2020) Swedish rape legislation from use of force to voluntariness – critical reflections from an everyday life perspective, in Special Issue on Rape laws in the Nordic Countries, in Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 8(2) 95-125, 2021. https://boap.uib.no/index.php/BJCLCJ/article/view/3241/3133
Moa Bladini (2020) ’Silenced Voices. Online Violence Against Women as a Threat Against Democracy’ in Eva-Maria Svensson (Red.) Special Issue Exploiting Justice in a Transformative Swedish Society, Nordic Journal of Law and Society 3 (2) 2020, pp. 1-42. https://journals.ub.umu.se/index.php/njolas/article/view/156