Biography
Ayako Hatano is an international law scholar specialising in international human rights law. She is a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) candidate in Law at the University of Oxford, where she was awarded the Clarendon Scholarship and actively contributed to the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and the Public International Law Group.
Her research addresses urgent and evolving challenges in human rights law, including hate speech, business and human rights, racial discrimination, and gender equality. She is particularly interested in how global human rights standards are interpreted, adapted, and mobilised in diverse local contexts.
As a Max Weber Fellow, Ayako is conducting a research project on international human rights and technology. The project examines the vernacularisation of rights and legal mobilisation in digital spaces, with a particular focus on the responsibilities of states and corporations in online regulation of harmful contents. She investigates how local actors engage with international legal norms to shape content moderation and digital governance.
Ayako holds degrees from the University of Tokyo (B.A., M.A., J.D.) and New York University School of Law (LL.M., as a Fulbright Scholar). She has extensive teaching experience, including at the University of Oxford and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and has delivered guest lectures across multiple continents.
Her recent publications include:
Hatano, ‘Regulating Online Hate Speech through the Prism of Human Rights Law’ (2023) 41 Australian Year Book of International Law 127.