Staff profile

Dafni joined Durham Law School as Assistant Professor in 2022. Her research interests lie primarily in family law, criminal law, and comparative law. Her current research, in particular, focuses on parenthood, assisted reproduction, non-marital relationships, and the regulation of multiple parenthood, while she is also currently working on topics related to the interplay between AI and criminal law.

Before joining DLS, Dafni was working on her second PhD at the University of Cambridge (Gonville & Caius College, W. M. Tapp Studentship, John Hall Studenthship), which focuses on the concept of parenthood in family law. In Cambridge, Dafni was also a Supervisor (small group teaching) in Family Law (2021-2022), a Project Manager for the Cambridge Pro Bono Project (2020-2021), and an Interviewer in Undergraduate Admissions for Gonville & Caius College (2021-2022). She is also currently an Academic Visitor at the Law Faculty's Cambridge Family Law Centre (2022-2023), and a member of the Steering Committee of Cambridge Reproduction (2021-2023), an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge. She has previously served as a Co-Convenor of the Early Researchers Seminar Series (2020-2022) and a Member of the Conceptions Fund Committee (2021-2022) at Cambridge Reproduction. Previously, Dafni has also been an Editor for the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (2013-2014).

Dafni also holds an LLB (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - AUTH), an LLM in Criminal Law (AUTH - State Scholarships Foundation Studentship), an LLM in which she specialised in Comparative Family Law (University of Cambridge - Onassis Foundation Studentship) and a PhD in Criminal Law, which focused on organised crime (AUTH - Academy of Athens Scholarship). While at AUTH, she has also taught as a teaching assistant in Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, European Human Rights Law, European Constitutional Law, and Advanced Issues in Family Law. She has also been a Research Fellow at the AUTH Jean Monnet Center of Excellence on European Constitutionalism and Religion(s), and a Teaching and Research Assistant at the AUTH Jean Monnet Chair for European Constitutional Law and Culture.

Dafni has also been a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg (Germany), a Fulbright Foundation Visiting Researcher at Harvard University (USA), and a Visiting Researcher (Utrecht Network Grant) at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Before taking up her current post in academia, she has worked, inter alia, as an External Consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), as an criminal lawyer in Greece where she is a member of the Thessaloniki Bar, and in Data Protection for the EU Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. She has presented in numerous conferences, including the SLS, ISFL, CEFL, and LSA annual conferences, and was invited to present her work on AI and criminal law at the Council of Europe Thematic Session on Artificial Intelligence in 2018. She has also worked in numerous research projects, including several EU-funded projects, both in family law and in criminal law.

Research interests

Family Law

Assisted Reproduction

Comparative Law

Criminal Law

Book review

• Lima, D. (2021). Book Review: International Survey of Family Law 2020. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 35(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1093/lawfam/ebab013
• Lima, D. (2015). Book Review: Perpetrators and Accessories in International Criminal Law: Individual Modes of Responsibility for Collective Crimes. Cambridge Law Journal, 74(1), 163-166. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0008197315000021

Chapter in book

• Lima, D. (2024). Three Models for Regulating Multiple Parenthood. In K. Duden, & D. Wiedemann (Eds.), Changing Families, Changing Family Law in Europe (95-111). Intersentia
• Papadopoulou, L., & Lima, D. (2022). EU citizenship, free movement and clashing identities in the context of same-sex families. In H. (. Gaudin (Ed.), Le droit européen, source de droits, source du droit: Mélanges en l'honneur de Vassilios Skouris (445-463). Mare & Martin
• Lima, D. (2019). The Concept of Parenthood in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights. In K. Boele-Woelki, & D. (. Martiny (Eds.), Plurality and Diversity of Family Relations in Europe (103-117). Intersentia. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780689111
• Lima, D. (2019). Criminalising Organised Crime on the EU Level: Understanding Crime through a Financial Aim Perspective?. In J. Ouwerkerk, J. Altena, J. Öberg, & M. S. (eds) (Eds.), The Future of EU Criminal Justice Policy and Practice (161-180). Brill Academic Publishers
• Lima, D. (2019). The Evolution of the European Court of Human Rights Case Law on the Right to Family Life through its Milestone Judgments on Same-Sex Couples (2010-2018). In C. Rogerson, M. Antokolskaia, J. Miles, P. Parkinson, & M. (. Vonk (Eds.), Family Law and Family Realities (89-103). Eleven
• Lima, D. (2017). Registered Partnerships in Greece and Cyprus. In J. Scherpe, & A. (. Hayward (Eds.), The Future of Registered Partnerships (301-346). Intersentia. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781780686325.015

Journal Article

• Lima, D. (2024). Legal parenthood in surrogacy: shifting the focus to the surrogate’s negative intention. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 46(2), 245-266. https://doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2024.2344935
• Lima, D., & Papadopoulou, L. (2023). The circulation of public documents under EU Regulation 2016/1191: Its application in Greece and emerging challenges on the legal recognition of same-sex families. Hellenic Review of European Law, International Edition: 2022, 1-26
• Lima, D. (2022). Case Note: Towards Cross-Border Recognition of Same-Sex Parenthood. Cambridge Law Journal, 81(2), 239-242. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0008197322000320
• Giannakoula, A., Lima, D., & Kaiafa-Gbandi, M. (2020). Combating Crime in the Digital Age: a Critical Review of EU Information Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in the Post-Interoperability Era. Brill research perspectives. Transnational crime, 2(4), 1-97. https://doi.org/10.1163/24680931-12340010
• Lima, D. (2018). Could AI Agents Be Held Criminally Liable? Artificial Intelligence and the Challenges for Criminal Law
• Lima, D. (2016). The legal status of registered partnerships in Greece and Cyprus. International Family Law Journal, 319-324

Monograph

• Lima, D. (2022). Organised Crime: A doctrinal and philosophy of law analysis [in Greek]. Nomiki Vivliothiki

Report

• Alghrani, A., Ali, N., Allen, K., Bennett, H., Benger, L., Betts, J., Bradley, S., Bond, C., van den Bree, M., Brooks, R., Chawner, S., Colbert, E., Copley, C., Daniel, J., Davies, C., Eddy, L., Elshehaly, M., Groen, M., Hartley, C., Henderson, L., …Waterman, A. (2024). An evidence-based plan for addressing the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) assessment and support crisis. Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives
• Todd, L., Pini, S., Mathai, M., Wood, M., & et al. (2024). A country that works for all children and young people: An evidence-based plan for building the foundations of a new "Sure Start" in and around education settings. Child of the North and Centre for Young Lives
• Lima, D. (2016). Income, troubles and legal family formats in Greece. [No known commissioning body]
• Lima, D. (2016). Death and legal family formats in Greece. [No known commissioning body]
• Lima, D. (2016). Migration and legal family formats in Greece. [No known commissioning body]