Elizabeta Ivičević Karas graduated cum laude from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb in 2000 and then pursued postgraduate European Studies at the University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and University of Zagreb, obtaining her postgraduate degree in the field of European Studies in 2001. In 2004, at the postgraduate study in criminal law at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, she defended her master’s thesis “Confiscation of Pecuniary Gain Acquired Through a Criminal Offence”, for which she got the Annual Award for Young Scientists and Artists from the Society of University Teachers and Other Scientists in Zagreb in 2005. In 2007, she defended her doctoral dissertation under the title “Le principe de l’égalité des armes en matière pénale dans la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme et en droit comparé (croate, français)” in the course of obtaining a dual doctorate at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and the University of Zagreb. She passed the bar exam. She speaks English, French, German and Italian.

Since September 2001 she has been employed at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, and since October 2018 she has been a full professor at the Department of Criminal Procedure. Since October 2021, she has held the position of Vice-Dean for Science, Innovation, Knowledge Transfer and Lifelong Learning, and since January 2022, she has been the head of the Postgraduate University (Doctoral) Study in Legal Sciences.

She teaches courses in Criminal Procedure, Penitentiary Law and Human Rights and Criminal Justice, at both graduate and postgraduate level. So far, she has been a head researcher in several scientific projects, including those of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, the University of Zagreb and the Croatian Science Foundation. In addition, she has participated as coordinator, researcher or key expert in ten competitive European projects. She has spoken at many domestic and international law conferences, and has repeatedly stayed as visiting researcher, over periods of between one and three months, at the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany. She is a member of the editorial board of the Croatian Annual of Criminal Sciences and Practice. Her publications include four books (one as co-author), two manuals (co-author) and numerous scientific papers, articles and reviews.

Since 2010, she has participated in the work of several expert working groups of the Ministry of Justice and Administration for drafting regulations in the field of criminal procedure and penitentiary law. From 2015 to 2017, she was entrusted with the role of the head of an expert working group on Draft Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act.

Between 2019 and 2023 she has been a member and vice-president of the State Attorney’s Council, elected from the ranks of university law professors.

Since July 2019 she has been on the list of ad hoc judges at the European Court of Human Rights for the Republic of Croatia.

She is a member of the Scientific Council for Government Administration, Judicature and the Rule of Law of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art.

She is a member of the Fair Trials – Legal Experts Advisory Panel (LEAP), and of the Croatian Law Centre, where she is a member of the steering committee.

She is also an active member of two professional associations – the Croatian Association of Criminal Sciences and Practice (vice president) and the Croatian Association of European Criminal Law (member of the steering committee).