Iulia Motoc was a magistrate in Romania,prosecutor,and judge (1989–1995) in criminal law. In 1995 she passed the full registration exam for judges in civil and criminal law. In 1996 she was admitted as a lawyer in the Bucharest Bar. After which she joined the University of Bucharest,as a teaching assistant and later becoming a full professor in 2002. She was a member of the Presidential Commission for Analysis of the Constitution (2007–2008) and rapporteur for the chapter on human rights. Motoc was elected judge at the Constitutional Court of Romania in 2010. She adjudicated on the constitutionality of laws and decided on exceptions brought to the Courts of law as to the unconstitutionality of laws and orders in civil and criminal law[6] She held this position until she became a judge at the European Court of Human Rights at the end of 2013.
UNCHR career and other international activities
Iulia Motoc became a member of the United Nations Subcommission on Human Rights in 1996,first as an alternate and in 2000–2001 she served as a President of United Nations Subcommission on Human Rights. She has co-authored the Working Paper on Free,Prior and Informed Consent of the Indigenous People which was incorporated in the UN Declaration for Indigenous People. Motoc was on the co-author of the UN Guidelines principles for Extreme poverty. She was the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Human Genome,author of the first reports of the United Nations in the field of genetics (2004–2007).
Iulia Motoc was elected member of the Advisory Committee for the Protection of National Minorities (1998–2004) and (2008–2012). She was a member of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (2010–2012) and Motoc was also an arbiter with ICSID,Washington (2008–2014).
Academic career
Iulia Motoc is Professor of International Law and European Law at the University of Bucharest since 2002. She was director (Romania) of the European Master on Human Rights and Democratization,European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization,Venise (2007–2015). Iulia Motoc was teaching at New York University School of Law (2002–2003) where she was Senior Jean Monnet Fellow. She has also taught at St-Thomas University in Miami (2001–2003) and she was Special Guest Professor at the European Academy oh Human Rights at the European Institute in Florence (2006). Iulia Motoc is research professor,Institute for Research in International and European Law,Sorbonne (2012–2014). At the European Court of Human Rights,Iulia Motoc has created a group of international law. She also initiated joint conferences between the European Society of International Law and the European Court of Human Rights.[7]
European Court of Human Rights
Motoc started her term as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights on 18 December 2013. In 2022,her dissenting opinion for the case of N. v. Romania was voted as the best separate opinion of the year 2021 by Strasbourg Observers.[8][9] According to Strasbourg Observers:
In her Partly Dissenting Opinion, Judge Motoc argued for a finding of violation of Article 14 read in conjunction with Article 8. She analysed the majority's refusal to consider Article 14 in this case, drawing on scholars who have called it the 'Cinderella' provision of the Convention. Judge Motoc then added her own understanding of Article 14 as the 'Hamlet' article of the ECHR, before arguing why it is so important to be willing to consider the discrimination of mentally disabled persons. She emphasised that human rights are often forgotten in the area of mental health and that those who suffer with mental health issues are often subject to discrimination and other forms of marginalization, thus being particularly vulnerable to human rights violations (paras. 7–9). This result suggests that our readership places particular importance on the rights of mentally disabled persons, and agrees with Judge Motoc's argument that the Court should be less circumspect in applying Article 14.[8]
Along with other judges, she was cited in an independent NGO report for possible conflict of interest as she seated in three cases in which the International Commission of Jurists(ICJ) intervened as third party.[10][11]
International Criminal Court
Shortly before the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided on a prosecution request for an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2024, Motoc asked to leave on health grounds the three-judge panel she was presiding, and was immediately replaced by Slovenian judge Beti Hohler.[12][13]
Migration and the European Convention on Human Rights (co-editors Ledi Bianku and Basak Cali), Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2020
The ECHR and General International Law, Oxford University Press, 2018 (co-editor Anne van Aaken)
New Developments in Constitutional Law, Eleven International Publishing
The impact of the European Court of Human Rights and the case-law of democratic change and development in Eastern Europe, editors Iulia Motoc and Ineta Ziemele, Cambridge University, 2016;
Internationalist doctrines during real communism in Europe, UMR Comparative Law, Sorbonne, Society of Comparative Legislation Publishing House, 2012 (co-editor Emmanuelle Jouannet);
Women's rights as human rights from universal to regional, University of Bucharest, 2009, (ed.);
The International Law of Genetic Discrimination: The Power of "Never Again" in Thérèse Murphy (ed.), New Technologies and Human Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009;
Pleading for Human Rights, Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, University Pantheon-Assas II, University of Bucharest Publishing House, 2008 (in French);
Conception of Pluralism and International Law in E. Jouannet, H.R. Fabri V. Tomcievitz, ESIL procedures, Selected Procedures of European Society of International Law, What's the use for *International Law, Hart, Oxford, 2008;
State and Individual Responsibility: controversial aspects of the right to democracy, in The State's Responsibility, Academy of International Law, Thesaurus Acroasium, Sakkoulas, Thessaloniki, 2006;
The role of the UN Special Rapporteurs in relation to States, in Emmanuel Decaux, United Nations and Human Rights, Pedone Publishing House, Paris, 2006;
About Democracy: Normative Challenges to the International Legal System, in S.Griller (eds.), International Economic Governance and Non-Economic Issues, Springer Wien New York, 2003 (co-author G.H.H. Weiler);
Public International Law, University of Bucharest, 1996, reprint, 2002 (co-author) (in French);
Use of Force in Public International Law, Exceptions to Article 2*4 of the UN Charter in the practice of the Security Council, Babel Publishing House, Bucharest, 1997 (in French).
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