Pola is a Assistant Professor in European Law at the European Studies Department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). During her employment at the UvA she has been a fellow in the Re:constitution Program (Exchange and analysis on Democracy and Rule of Law in Europe, 2020-21) and Emile Noel Fellow at the New York University School of Law (2021-22). Previously, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at iCourts – the Centre of Excellence for International Courts at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen (2016-2018), as a Lecturer of EU law (2015/16) at the University of Geneva and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Public International and European Law at the University of Fribourg (CH) (2014/15). She holds a double doctoral degree (2010-2014) from the Université libre de Bruxelles (Institute for European Studies) and the University of Geneva (Global Studies Institute). She benefited from a fellowship of the European Commission awarded within the framework of the GEM PhD School - Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate on Globalization, the EU and Multilateralism (2010-2013). Pola spent the autumn semester 2012 as a visiting scholar at Boston University (Centre for the Study of Europe). She graduated from the Humboldt University in Berlin (2005-2010) with a German “Staatsexamen”, where she also followed the School of Polish Law (2006-2009). During her exchange year at King’s College London (2007-2008) she specialized in European and Human Rights Law. Her experience includes an administrative traineeship at the Court of Justice of the EU as well as summer internships at the Polish Embassy in Berlin and Clifford Chance LLP. Pola speaks fluent German, English, French and Polish.
Pola’s particular interest lies in research on the normative underpinnings and the theoretical narrative that could frame the external dimension of judicial authority and legitimacy. In her doctoral dissertation entitled “Judicial Activism of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in a Pluralist Architecture of Global Law”, Pola was examining the internal and external factors channeling judicial activism of the CJEU in the domain of EU external relations. She has been presenting and publishing in English, French, German and Polish on a wide range of topics going also beyond European integration, including in particular:
Pola has developed and taught a variety of courses on European and international law. Thos include both specialized courses, such as International and European Human Rights Law, EU International Relations Law/ EU External Relations and Enlargement, The Role of the Court of Justice of the EU in European Integration, Federlism and Separation of Powers in the EU, as well as general introduction courses on European Union law and policy. She has completed the Universty Teaching Qualification.
At the University of Amsterdam, Pola serves as the coordinator of the BA Theses in European Studies. She has also served as the coordinator of the English-speaking bachelor degree in European Studies (2020-21) and the law major in the European Studies BA (2018-2021). In those capacities, she has developed new grading rubrics, coordinated teaching and examination plans as well as set up promotional activities.
Pola is a member of the board of the Amsterdam School for Regional, Transnational and European Studies (ARTES) and an active member of Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES), where she has also served as the coordinator of the "Europe in the World" theme.
Salvatore Caserta & Pola Cebulak, Territorial Disputes by Proxy: The Indirect Involvement of International Courts in the Mega-Politics of Territory, 84 Law and Contemporary Problems 123-151 (2022), available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol84/iss4/6
‘Resilience Techniques of Regional Economic Courts in Times of Crisis’ with Salvatore Caserta, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 70(3), 2021
"Backlash against international courts: explaining the forms and patterns of resistance to international courts", Mikael Rask Madsen, Pola Cebulak, Micha Wiebusch, International Journal of Law in Context 14(2), 2018, pp. 197-220
“The Tensions between Internal and External Multilateralism in the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union Concerning International Agreements”, Assel Tutumlu & Gaye Güngör (eds.), Multilateralism in Global Governance. Formal and Informal Institutions, Peter Lang, 2016
Introduction in “L’Union européenne et le droit international - The European Union and International Law”, Samantha Besson and Nicolas Levrat (eds.), Schulthess, 2015