Dima Hussain is a CIVICA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Central European University in Vienna. Before joining CEU, she was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, where she also earned her PhD in law. Her thesis, “Tribal Laws and Legal Pluralism in Syria: Societal Justice Beyond Legal Centralism,” examined tribal justice in Syria, exploring its historical and modern interactions with both state law and Islamic Shari’a.
Dima’s research focuses on living law and non-state law, with a particular interest in the gender aspects of tribal and customary justice. She holds a Master of Laws in Comparative, European, and International Laws from the European University Institute. Her first Master of Laws was in American Law, obtained from Syracuse University in New York, USA. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Laws from Damascus University in Syria.
With the collaboration of the CHDAJ and the support of Professor Barbara Truffin, Dima will work on the gender aspect of tribal justice, in addition to the historical correlation between tribal justice and Shari’a in Syria, examining its recent manifestations following the Syrian uprising of 2011.