Monika Zalnieriute

Dr. Monika Zalnieriute is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where she leads cutting-edge research on AI and technologies in courts. Committed to building a strong law & AI research scene in her home country, Monika also holds senior research affiliations with Vilnius University and the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. Previously, Monika was a Senior Lecturer and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at UNSW Sydney, and held postdoctoral appointment at the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD in Law at the European University Institute in Florence.

 

Monika’s work sits at the intersection of technology and critical legal studies, public law, feminist and decolonial theory. She is particularly interested in the structural injustices embedded in AI decision-making systems used by courts, governments, and law enforcement. Her research critically interrogates the private power of tech companies, AI surveillance and policing, and the digital rights of marginalized communities, especially LGBTI groups.

 

She is the co-editor of Money, Power and AI (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and The Cambridge Handbook of Facial Recognition in the Modern State (CUP, 2024), and is currently leading The Cambridge Handbook on AI and Technologies in Courts (CUP, 2026), featuring contributions from over 60 leading global scholars, including John Tasioulas, Richard Susskind, Frank Pasquale, and Tania Sourdin.

 

Monika’s scholarship has appeared in leading law journals such as the Modern Law Review, Harvard Business Law Review, Cambridge Law Journal, and the American Journal of International Law. Her work has been translated into Mandarin, Russian, and German, and has featured in major media outlets including the BBC and The Guardian. It has shaped policy and practice at institutions like the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the European Parliament, and the WHO.

 

A recognized thought leader in the field, Monika ranks in the top 1% of scholars on SSRN, with over 21,000 downloads and nearly 1,000 citations on Google Scholar.

 

Outside academia, she’s a committed long-distance runner—and proud marathon finisher.