Staff profile

Natalie joined Durham Law School in September 2022, having previously been a Lecturer in Law (Education and Research) at the University of Exeter and a Teaching Fellow at University College London (UCL) and at Queen Mary University of London.

Natalie’s research focuses on human rights and labour law, with a particular interest in domestic workers and other marginalised workers, and in issues of gender and migration. Her PhD, completed at UCL in 2021, analysed the legal position of domestic workers and their frequent exclusion from protective labour law legislation and criticised this from a human rights perspective. Natalie is now working on a book project arising from the PhD.

Natalie is a co-investigator on the research project 'Access to protection, enforcement & redress? Effects of visas for agriculture & care on migrant workers' vulnerabilities in the UK workforce,' funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council via the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre. Using the agricultural and care work sectors as case studies, the project examines how immigration rules and labour policies can create vulnerabilities to trafficking and other forms of modern-day slavery. Natalie's other ongoing research projects include: the human rights implications of the ‘hostile environment’ for migrant women; and the rights of domestic workers in the ‘gig economy.' 

Natalie is a trustee for the migrant domestic worker NGO Kalayaan and is the joint convenor for the Labour Law section of the Society of Legal Scholars. Before entering academia, Natalie spent nine years in legal practice specialising in claims against the police and public authorities.

In 2023-24, Natalie will be teaching Employment and Tort Law on the LLB and International Protection of Human Rights on the LLM. Natalie welcomes inquiries for PhD supervision from prospective doctoral students in her areas of research interest.

Research interests

Labour law; human rights, including as relevant to (domestic) workers' rights, rights of women and migrants, socio-economic rights, and positive duties; feminist and anti-racist approaches, Latin America; business and human rights.

Book review

• Sedacca, Natalie (2023). Pavlou, Vera, Migrant Domestic Workers in Europe: Law and the Construction of Vulnerability, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2021, 166pp, hb £76.50. The Modern Law Review 86(1): 302-306.

Chapter in book

• Sedacca, N. (2022). Domestic Work and the Gig Economy. In A Research Agenda for the Gig-Economy and Society. De Stefano, V., Durri, I., Stylogiannis, C. & Wouters, M. Edward Elgar. 149-166.

Journal Article

• Ohana, Natalie, Barazi, Taimaa, Barrett, David, Bedeau, Jasmin, Bhuckory, Prerna, Bosch, Greta, Braham, James, Coombs, Connor, Gola, Swati, Jaber, Nora, Hailemariam, Hanna, Lambert, Zoe, Lawrence, Rebecca, Loder, Louise, Marshall, Emma, Matt, Tia, Nousia, Kyriaki, Ozsoy, Elif Ceylan, Phiri, Tamira, Rogge, Malcolm, Sedacca, Natalie, Snook, Lee, Thiemann, Inga, Wallace, Andrea & Walsh, Karen (2022). Rationale and recommendations on decolonising the pedagogy and curriculum of the Law School at the University of Exeter. The Law Teacher 56(4): 536-551.
• Sedacca, N (2022). Domestic Workers, the ‘Family Worker’ Exemption from Minimum Wage, and Gendered Devaluation of Women’s Work. Industrial Law Journal
• Manoussaki-Adamopoulou, I, Sedacca, N, Benchekroun, R, Knight, A & Saavedra, AC (2022). Reflecting on Crisis. Migration and Society 5(1): 124-135.
• Sedacca, Natalie (2019). Migrant domestic workers and the right to a private and family life. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 37(4): 288.
• Sedacca, Natalie (2019). The ‘turn’ to Criminal Justice in Human Rights Law: An Analysis in the Context of the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement. Human Rights Law Review 19(2): 315-345.
• Sedacca, Natalie (2017). Abortion in Latin America in International Perspective: Limitations and Potentials of the Use of Human Rights Law to Challenge Restrictions. Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice 32: 109-136.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Mantouvalou V & Sedacca N (2022). Trapped in Cycles of Exploitation: The UK Overseas Domestic Worker Visa 10 Years On (UK Labour Law Blog).
• Sedacca N (2021). A crucial and long-needed step against the devaluation of domestic work: ‘family worker’ exemption dis-applied in Puthenveettil v Alexander & Ors (UK Labour Law Blog).
• Mantouvalou V & Sedacca N (2020). The Human Rights of Domestic Workers: Mahlangu v Ministry of Labour and the Transformative Nature of the South African Constitution (UK Labour Law Blog).
• Sedacca N (2019). International Domestic Workers’ Day 2019: the rights of domestic workers in the UK need far-reaching and urgent reform (Focus on Labour Exploitation Blog).

Report

• Sedacca, N & Sharp, A (2019). Dignity, Not Destitution: the Impact of Differential Rights to Work for Migrant Domestic Workers. Kalayaan.