Dr. Dorothy Makaza-Goede

Photo: UHH/Jura
Postdoctoral Fellow
Address
University of Hamburg
Faculty of Law
Rothenbaumchaussee 33
20148 Hamburg
Office
Rechtshaus
Room: A128
Contact
Postdoctoral researcher and Lecturer: Funding program „Postdoctoral Fellowships" within the Excellence Strategy of the Universität Hamburg
Dr. Dorothy Makaza-Goede is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Law faculty, within the Excellence Strategy of the University of Hamburg. Her research contributes to the University´s emerging field, Law in Global Contexts and focuses on decolonial and counter-hegemonic mechanisms in international law
Teaching
- Critical Legal Theory and Practice (Winter semester 2025)
- Decolonial Perspectives in Public International Law (Summer semester 2025 & Winter semester 2023)
- Artificial Intelligence and International Criminal Law (Summer semester 2025)
- Reparations under International Law (Summer semester 2024)
- Global North and South Approaches to Climate and Environmental Justice (Summer semester 2024)
- Colonial Amnesia: Restitution of Historically Looted Artefacts (Summer semester 2024)
- Decolonial Climate Law (Winter semesters 2023 & 2024)
- Compliance and Complementarity under International Criminal Law (Winter semester 2024)
Selected Guest Lectures
- Decolonising Climate Justice – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Master’s in Human Rights and Conflict Management (Pisa, June 2024)
- Gendered Coloniality: An Afro-Legal Feminist Perspective – Summer Academy for Legal Feminism, Philipps University of Marburg (June 2024)
- Decolonial Feminisms: Situating Afro-Legal Feminism among Global Feminisms – University of Münster, Critical Legal Thought (Rechtskritisches Denken, May 2025)
- Artificial Intelligence and Legal Feminist Futures: Are We Too Late to the Party? – Keynote Lecture, Summer Academy for Legal Feminism, University of Hamburg (June 2025)
- Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities – Sustainable Development Lecture Series, University of Hamburg (2024)
- Racism, Law Schools and Legal Studies in Germany – Studierendentag, University of Hamburg November 2023)
Visiting Fellowships / Research Residencies
- Visiting Scholar, Peace Palace Library, International Court of Justice, Under the invitation of Judge Dire Tladi (The Hague, August 2025)
- Visiting Fellow, South African Research Chair, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (Pretoria, March 2024)
- Visiting Scholar, Universidad de Chile, (Santiago, May 2024)
Additional / Parallel Responsibilities
Founder and Director
Global South Transformation Foundation gUG (Haftungsbeschränkt) — Germany
Workshops and Trainings Facilitated
- Rethinking and Questioning Norms: Race, Identity and Systemic Change
- Unmasking Privilege: Critical Whiteness and Racial Sensitivity Training
- Breaking the Cycle: Exploring Race, Racism and the Power of Legal Studies
- Understanding Intersectionality and Embracing Allyship as Solidarity and a Leadership Skill
Recent and Ongoing Activities in the Research System
- Lead Coordinator, Working Group 2: A World in Motion – Territoriality, Climate Change and Migration (German–Chilean Academic Forum, Berlin, 2025)
- Patron and Host, Summer Academy for Legal Feminist Theme: “Reimagining Feminist Legal Futures in a Dynamic World” (Hamburg, 13–15 June 2025)
- Coordinator and Co-Host, Global South Rising Research Network Symposium (2025)
- Organiser and Host, Global South Rising Symposium (Hamburg, 20–21 November 2024)
- Academic Lead, International Law Plus Trilateral Summer School Programme, University of Hamburg (2023–2025)
- External Examiner and Reviewer for Doctoral Theses
- Mentor, BIPOC Law Students and Students with a Migration Background (Jura Mentoring Programme, University of Hamburg, 2023–present)
Selected Relevant Publications
- Makaza-Goede, D., “Of Racialized Marginalities and Toothless Bulldogs: Self-Determination, State Sovereignty, Land and the Mapuche in Chile,” Jura Gentium XXI (2) (2024), 228–259. ISSN 1826-8269
- Makaza-Goede, D., “Continuing Colonialities through Epistemic Silences: Law Schools, Law Studies and Avenues for Transformation in Germany,” The Law Teacher 58 (2024), 1–14. DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2024.2420684
- Makaza-Goede, D., “Through the Contestation Looking-Glass: State Immunity and (Non)Compliance with the International Criminal Court,” Third World Approaches to International Law Review 2 (2021). Read here
- Makaza, D., “African States and International Criminal Law: Rethinking the Narrative and Contextualising the Discourse,” in J. Nicholson (ed.), Strengthening the Validity of International Tribunals (Brill, 2018). Available here
- Makaza, D., “Towards Afrotopia: The AU Withdrawal Strategy Document, the ICC, and the Possibility of Pluralistic Utopias,” German Yearbook of International Law 60 (2018). DOI: 10.3790/gyil.60.1.481
- Makaza, D., “African Supranational Criminal Jurisdiction: One Step Towards Ending Impunity or Two Steps Backwards for International Criminal Justice?” in N. Hayashi & C. Bailliet (eds), The Legitimacy of International Criminal Tribunals (Cambridge University Press, 2017). View publication
Pending Monograph
- Makaza, D., Contesting (Non)Compliance: Towards Afrotopian Conceptions of International Criminal Justice (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2025/2026)
Blogs and Other Publications
- “The AU’s Withdrawal Strategy: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?” (2017), Culture and Human Rights Blog. Read here
- “You Can Run but You Can’t Hide? Rwamukombe and Universal Jurisdiction” (2016), International Law Grrls. Read here
- “Legal Aspects: Exploring the Boundaries between Policy, Practice and Reality,” in P. Mix, To Walk in Her Shoes: An Inside Perspective on Thai Sex Workers in Hamburg, Germany (Amnesty for Women, 2016).