Jovana Davidovic

Associate Professor
Biography

Dr. Davidovic's research and teaching interests include social and political philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of law, military ethics, AI and algorithm ethics and business and organizational ethics. She has published on international law, military ethics, AI ethics and human rights. Her recent work has focused on AI and algorithm ethics in military settings and algorithm audits as well as individualist approaches to just war theory; refugees and displacement. Dr. Davidovic commonly teaches classes like Philosophy of Law, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Human Rights, War, Terrorism and Torture and Matters of Life and Death. Dr. Davidovic previously worked at the Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Australian National University in Canberra.  

Books

  • “Algorithm Audits: Scoring the Algorithms that Score Us,” with Shea Brown and Ali Hasan, Big Data and Society (2021)
  • “Reconsidering the Legal Equality of Combatants,” Journal of Military Ethics, 18:4, 2020, 268-286
  • “Displacement as Significant Collateral Harm in War,” Global Justice: Theory, Practice, Rhetoric, special edition on the Philosophy of Refugees and Internally Displaced, eds. Isaac Taylor and Yasemin Sari 11:1, 2018, pp. 64-84
  • “Human Rights Through Practice: Practical Approach to Human Rights,” in Human Rights: Political Approaches, eds. T. Campbell and K. Bourne, London: Routledge Press (2017)
  • “Proportionate Killing: Using Jus in Bello Conditions to Model the Liability and Lesser Evil Justifications for Killing in War,” in Weighing Lives: Combatants and Civilians in War, eds. Jens Ohlin, Claire Finkelstein and Larry May, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press (2017)
  • “Proportionality and Necessity Conditions Jus In Bello,” in Cambridge Handbook of Just War Theory, eds. Sharon Fyfe and Larry May, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press (2017)
  • Davidovic, J. “What Do We Owe Refugees,” Journal of Global Ethics, Special Issue on Refugees (2016)
  • “Moral and Political Justification of the ICC,” The Critique, series on the Challenges and Opportunities of a Rising Africa (2016)
  • “Should the Changing Character of War Affect Our Theories of War?” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (printed version forthcoming 2016, early view available online, DOI: 10.1007/s10677-01509653-x)
  • “Finding Space for Criminal Prosecutions Post-Conflict,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 33:1, 2016, pp. 53-68
  • “Universal Jurisdiction and International Criminal Law,” The New Philosophy of Criminal Law, eds. Zachary Hoskins and Chad Flanders, London, U.K.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015, pp. 113-130
  • “International Criminal Court, the Trust Fund for Victims and Victim Participation,” Jus Post Bellum and Transitional Justice, eds. Larry May and Elizabeth Edenberg. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 217-243
  • “The International Rule-of-Law and Killing in War,” Social Theory and Practice, 38:3, 2012, pp. 531-552
  • “Timor-Leste and Transitional Justice: should we pursue international prosecutions for the crimes committed in East Timor in 1999?” Morality, Jus Post Bellum and International Law, eds. Larry May and Andrew Forcehimes, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 78-112
  • “Theoretical Foundations of Human Rights: Natural Law Approach, Positivism, Critical Legal Studies, Feminist Legal Studies and Critical Race Theories,” in International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process, eds. David Weissbrodt, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, Joan Fitzpatrick and Frank Newman, LexisNexis, 4th ed., 2009 (with David Weissbrodt), pp. 225-240
  • “Are Humanitarian Military Interventions Obligatory?” Journal of Applied Philosophy, 25:2, 2008, pp. 134-144

Book reviews and more

Work in progress 

  • “Soldier enhancement, bio-convergence and brain-computer interfaces in military settings,” with Forrest Crowell
  • “Liability to Defensive Harm, Forfeiture and Reciprocity Theories of Rights” 
  • “Political Neutrality in the Military”
  • “Ethical principles for using machine learning in military decision-making,” in preparation
  • “Just War Theory and Media Ethics,” in preparation for Routledge Handbook on Media Ethics
  • “Responsibility for algorithmic decision making in the military: International Law and Ethics,” in preparation 
  • Module on ROLE MORALITY; PRIVATE VS PUBLIC MORALITY; Constitutional Paradigm and Civil-Military relations" for Navy's Enlisted Ethics Curriculum 
  • “Law and Morality of Fighting in War and Expressive Theories of Law” (complete first draft)
  • “Minimal Decency as a Bridge Between Positive and Negative Duties” (in preparation)

Committees and service

  • Member of Graduate Studies Committee, UI Philosophy
Research areas
  • Ethics and social/political
  • Philosophy of law
This is a picture of Jovana Davidovic
PhD, University of Minnesota
Address

University of Iowa
273 English-Philosophy Building (EPB)
251 W. Iowa Avenue
Iowa City , IA 52242
United States