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UvA Sustainability Platform (USP) USP

Dr. A. (Andrea) Leiter PhD

Associate Professor
Faculty of Law
Public International Law
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
  • Room number: 10.03
Postal address
  • Postbus 15859
    1001 NJ Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Andrea Leiter is an Associate Professor and the Director of Research at the Amsterdam Center for International Law. Her research focuses on technology enabled governance and is embedded in the Sustainable Global Economic Law (SGEL) project. She researches on global inequality and transnational law making through private actors with a focus on the digital economy and blockchain technology. Supported by a VENI grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) she conducts her research project on '(Re)coding Value(s) in the Digital Economy' (2024-2027). Her work has been published in leading acadmic journals such as Transnational Legal Theory, Law & Critique and the Leiden Journal for International Law.

    Andrea obtained her PhD in a jointly-awarded degree program between the University of Melbourne and the University of Vienna where she was funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her resulting manuscript titled ‘Making the World Safe for Investment: The Protection of Foreign Property 1922-1959’ was published with Cambridge University Press in 2023. 

    She is a faculty member at the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School.

    She also co-developed ecological and social justice projects at the intersection of blockchain technology, economics and governance like Sovereign Nature Initiative and A Thousand Breaths and co-produced a short documentary film called 'The Weight of the Wild'.

    Her current research collaborations include an expoloratory project on 'Cryptologix - How to Make Blockchain Legible' (2025-2026) and 'Blockchain as Infrastructure of Datafied Warfare' (2026) togeterh with Dr. Simon Trimborn. 

  • Service & Editorial Positions

    2025 -             Advisory Board, RPA Decolonial Futures, University of Amsterdam

    2024 -             Impact Committee Member, University of Amsterdam Law School

    2023 -             Conference Committee, European DAO Workshop

    2023 -             Advisory Board, Routledge Book Series AI, Law and Politics

    2022               Development and Coordination, new Advanced LLM in Technology Governance, University of Amsterdam (started September 2024)

    2021 -             Review Editor, Technology and Law, Frontiers of Artificial Intelligence

    2020 -  2022  Program Committee, Cryptoeconomic Systems MIT Press

    2019 -  2021   Editor, Crypto Law Review                                                                         

    2013 - 2015     Assistant Editor, Austrian Review of International and European Law

  • Publications

    2026

    • Leiter, A. (2026). Blockchain and International Law. Manuscript in preparation. In P. de Filippi, & M. Mannan (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Blockchain and the Law Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Leiter, A. (in press). To Take Back Value: Critique as Protocol Design. Transnational Legal Theory, 16(3).
    • Leiter, A., & Bagchi, K. (2026). The International Legal Aspect of Private Money: Cryptocurrencies, Corporations, and International Law. Manuscript in preparation. In A. Kulick, D. Lustig, & A. Sanger (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Global Corporations and International Law
    • Leiter, A., Mazzi, A., Smakthin, V., & Bischoff, C. (in press). Flipping the Economics of Ecology with Sovereign Nature Initiative. In P. Kuenkel (Ed.), Transforming Economies: Feminist Perspectives (pp. 16). Springer.

    2025

    • Dogot, D., & Leiter, A. (2025). Augmented Law: Formalism in Blockchain. Journal of Cross-disciplinary Research in Computational Law, 1(3). https://journalcrcl.org/crcl/article/view/25 [details]
    • Leiter, A. (2025). DIY: coding value in international investment law. In J. D. Haskell (Ed.), Research Handbook on Law and Political Economy (2nd ed., pp. 260-269). (Research Handbooks on Globalisation and the Law). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803921198.00026 [details]
    • Leiter, A. (in press). X. In M. Petersmann, & D. van den Meersche (Eds.), Underworlds – Sites and Struggles of Global Dis/Ordering (LSE International Studies). Cambridge University Press.

    2024

    • Leiter, A. (2024). Recoding Values: Cryptostatecraft and Experiments in Future Governance. In Technological change and international law : ESIL annual conference, Vilnius, 5-6 September 2024

    2023

    • Ferrari, V., Leiter, A., Idelberger, F., Mannan, M., María-Cruz, V., & Bodó, B. (Eds.) (2023). Log Out. A Glossary of Technological Resistance and Decentralization. Institute of Network Cultures.
    • Leiter, A. (2023). Making the world safe for investment: the protection of foreign property 1922-1959. (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law; Vol. 178). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009330428 [details]
    • Leiter, A. (2023). Perimeters of possibility: legal imagination and structural indeterminacy in international legal thought. Transnational Legal Theory, 14(1), 100-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/20414005.2023.2203540 [details]

    2022

    2021

    2018

    2017

    2026

    2025

    2024

    2021

    2020

    2023

    2022

    2022

    • Leiter, A., Gandorfer, D., & Ayub, Z. (2022). Breath for Sale: Breathing collectively for a Right to Breathe!. Digital or Visual Products

    2021

    Prize / grant

    • Leiter, A. (2024). Impact Grant for Research.
    • Leiter, A. (2024). Faculty Research Strategic Investment Fund.
    • Leiter, A. (2023). VENI: (Re)coding Value(s) in the Digital Economy.
    • Leiter, A. & Venzke, I. (2021). Sustainability Teaching Grant.
    • Leiter, A. (2020). Global digital art: Categorization, place and economic value in the Crypto art market.

    Membership / relevant position

    • Leiter, A. (2024-). European DAO Workshop 2024 (DAWO), European DAO Workshop (DAWO) Conference Committee.

    Media appearance

    Journal editor

    Talk / presentation

    • Vogiatzoglou, P. (speaker), Leiter, A. (speaker), Irion, K. (speaker), Dogot, D. (speaker) & Galič, M. (speaker) (15-12-2025). Book launch "Mass data surveillance and predictive policing" by Dr Plixavra Vogiatzoglou. https://acil.uva.nl/content/events/2025/12/mass-data-surveillance-and-predictive-policing.html?origin=nMBcXZyYTj2MGQ9fw4qmhg
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (14-3-2025). From Nation State to Network State, The University of Melbourne Law School.
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (27-2-2025). Cryptostatecraft, Center for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL), University of Hong Kong.
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (16-12-2024). Transformative Law with an Anarchist Squint – Notes on Cryptostatecraft, TEGL Conference, Maastricht.
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (28-11-2024). Cryptostatecraft: Recoding Value/s in the Digital Economy, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.. https://www.law.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/cryptostatecraft-recoding-values-digital-economy
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (24-11-2024). Globalisation & Law Network seminar with Andrea Leiter, Globalisation & Law Network seminar .
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (5-9-2024). Recoding Values: Cryptostatecraft and Experiments in Future Governance, ESIL Annual Conference 2024 , Vilnus.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (10-7-2024). Decentralization, Climate & Environment, EthCC 7 - Blockchain for Good. https://event.theblockchainforgood.org/index.php/podcast/bfgu2-climate-environment/
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (5-7-2024). European DAO Workshop 2024, ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (13-10-2023). DAO @ LexTech Institute, LexTech Institute, Université de Neuchâtel.
    • Leiter, A. (invited speaker) (10-9-2023). Funding the Commons Berlin, Blockchain Week Berlin.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (9-4-2022). Law, Technology and the Human Conference.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) & Dogot, D. (speaker) (11-11-2021). Augmented Order - the Hyper-formalism of Blockchain or Blockchain as Trans-legalism, COHUBICOL -Counting as a Human Being in the Era of Computational Law.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (11-9-2021). ESIL Closing Panel - Global Law as the End of International Law?, European Society of International Law (ESIL) Annual Conference 2021, Stockholm.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (1-9-2021). Technology driven agency of 'nature', Normandy Chair for Peace.
    • Leiter, A. (speaker) (31-8-2021). Blockchain as a Matter of Jurisdiction - Or where does Consent Live?, Arbeitskreis junger Völkerrechtswissenschafter_innen.

    Others

    • Leiter, A. (visiting researcher) (24-2-2025 - 18-3-2025). University of Melbourne (visiting an external institution).
    • Morvillo, M. (organiser), ten Oever, N. (chair), Catanzariti, M. (participant), Leiter, A. (participant) & Irion, K. (participant) (18-12-2024). Book panel on ‘Disconnecting sovereignty: How Data Fragmentation Reshapes the Law’, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (organiser) & Vallejo, R. (organiser) (10-10-2024 - 11-10-2024). Law & (De)Valuation Practices (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (visiting researcher) (1-4-2024 - 1-10-2024). SOAM - A community catalyst dedicated to nurturing collaboration, experimentation and learning for transformative change (visiting an external institution).
    • Leiter, A. (organiser) (7-11-2023 - 8-11-2023). Treasuries for Planetary Survival, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (visiting researcher) (1-9-2023 - 1-3-2024). Institute for Advanced Studies (visiting an external institution). https://ias.uva.nl/content/news/2025/02/blogpost-by-andrea-leiter.html?origin=P4tjRRWlT6iSOuH%2BAiDOqA
    • Leiter, A. (other) (2-2023 - 8-2023). Tracing the Wild (other).
    • Leiter, A. (participant) (22-9-2022). Exploratory Seminar Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, Boston (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (organiser) (20-5-2022 - 21-5-2022). Experimental Zone, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (organiser) & Petersmann, M. (participant) (19-5-2022 - 20-5-2022). Theory-Hacks for Radical Contracting: How to Create Value Metabolisms?, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Leiter, A. (other) (1-5-2022 - 1-9-2022). Exhibition: Gas Exchanges and a Right to Breathe (other).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
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