Dr. Suzanne Schot is an Assistant Professor of International Criminal Law at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in comparative and international criminal law and supervises bachelor and master theses.
Suzanne received her Ph.D. in international criminal law from the University of Groningen in February 2022. Her dissertation examined whether the potential effects of trauma on witnesses’ testimonial evidence are sufficiently taken into account in criminal proceedings for international crimes in a way that ensures the fairness of proceedings and the accuracy of fact-finding. Emphasis was placed on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), en the Dutch court in de Hague prosecuting international crimes. She also holds an LL.M. degree (2016, summa cum laude) in criminal law and criminology and and an LL.M. degree (2016, cum laude) in Legal Research (Research Master) from the University of Groningen.
Suzanne's research interests and publications extend in the fields of international criminal (procedural) law and human rights law. She is the author of the chapter 'Questioned by the Court: the role of judges and sociocultural aspects of testimonial evidence in Katanga' in the volume Intersections of Law and Culture at the International Criminal Court (McGonigle Leyh, B. & Fraser, J. eds) published by Edward Elgar in 2020. She recently published a book based on her PhD research entitled 'Traumatised Witnesses and International Criminal Trials: Testimony, Fair Proceedings, and Accurate Fact-Finding', which has been published by Routledge (2024).
