Dr Titilayo Adebola

Lecturer in Law and Theme Coordinator, Intellectual Property Law, School of La Associate Director of the Centre of Commercial Law, University of Aberdeen, UK. Dr Adebola is also a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Expertise:

Dr Adebola has expertise in international economic law, with a particular interest in intellectual property law and food and agriculture law. Her current research examines intellectual property law-making in emerging markets; the political economy of geographical indications; protection of farmer-centred innovations; intersections of food systems approach, food security, food sovereignty and the right to food; and international organisations as law-makers for food and agriculture.

Geographical coverage:

International, regional, sub-regional and national laws, policies, principles, norms and cross-cutting issues such as trade, investment, environment, gender, human rights and sustainable development relevant to the discourse on intellectual property rights and food/agriculture.

Policy work:

She is currently working with research networks on intellectual property rights and food and agriculture law and policy reforms in Africa, including in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Participate in the Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group Meetings on Farmers’ Rights organised by the Secretariat of the United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Contributed to the African Regional Consultation on the UNIDROIT- FAO-IFAD Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts.

Dr Siobhán Airey

Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland. Member of UCD’s Centre for Human Rights and Business, Law and Regulation research group, as well as the Human Rights Research and Education Centre of the University of Ottawa, Canada. Member of the Law and Development Research Network.

Expertise:

A scholar of the nexus of law, governance and sustainable development. Combines conceptual/theoretical insight with historical, doctrinal and empirical research methods so as to better understand how these three fields create and enshrine inequality, as well as reveal possibilities to address and redress inequality in all three. Her current work examines the international governance of Official Development Assistance (ODA or development aid) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors, and more specifically the international governance of blended finance for the UN sustainable development goals. Deeply inter-disciplinary, her work draws insights and perspectives from international political economy, international relations, science and technology studies, and debates in feminism, decolonialism and critical geography.

Geographical coverage:

International: The international governance of sustainable development, and specifically the governance of international economic development by the OECD.

Regional governance: EU external relations with the former colonies of EU member states via the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000-2020) with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and regions (ACP), and proposed Economic Partnership Agreements with ACP regional entities.

National governance: Canada’s and Ireland’s international aid policies; governance of aid by the state in Tanzania and in the East African community.

Policy work:

Has previously worked and collaborated in research and public policy advocacy for national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and think tanks on international development policy, women’s equality, human rights and social inclusion in Ireland, the Netherlands, the EU and Canada. Currently is a research associate with the Transnational Institute.

Dr Olabisi Akinkugbe

Assistant Professor and the Viscount Bennett Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada.

Editor, Afronomicslaw Blog

Expertise:

Professor Akinkugbe's research covers several topics on issues in and at the intersection of public international law, international economic law, human rights, law and development, international courts, and regional economic integration in Africa. He explores these issues from the national, regional, and international contexts. His research draws on critical traditions such as Socio-legal approaches to law, Post-colonialism, and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) among others.

Professor Akinkugbe holds several leadership positions within international law and international economic law journals. In 2023, he was appointed as the section Editor, International Decisions and Decision Essays, American Journal of International Law. In 2020, he co-founded and serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of International Economic Law. Professor Akinkugbe is active in the governance of international societies and professional associations in his field. He has been appointed to and serves on the Executive Councils of the Canadian Council of International Law, American Society of International Law, the Society of International Economic Law, the steering committee of the Academic Forum on Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and the Advisory Board of the African International Economic Law Network.

Geographical coverage:

Trade, investment and development issues as they relate to Africa and the global south.

Professor Donatella Alessandrini

Professor of Law and Co-director, Social Critiques of Law (SoCriL) research cluster, Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK.

Expertise:

International economic law, with a particular interest in international trade theory and law, critical development studies, and feminist political economy. Her current work investigates the role international economic law plays in the proliferation of global value chains, and in the unequal distribution of value between and within countries; and it aims to develop a conceptual framework that can adequately embrace productive and reproductive activities of workers involved in these chains.

Geographical coverage:

Trade and investment issues globally with a particular interest in how international trade and investment law and policies affect developing countries, gender, labour and the environment in the context of global value chains.

Policy work:

Donatella is working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governments on development, investment, labour and gender issues relating to value chain trade.

Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris

Professor of Law, University of Kent

Expertise:

Amanda specialises in empirically grounded, theoretically informed, cross-disciplinary approaches to law; and to the economic life of law in particular.

Her current research focuses on how we might use design-based methods to generate and test collective intelligence around the actual and potential relationships between law and economic life. This work builds on a long-term interest in the conceptual and empirical power of sociologically-informed approaches to law and economy, sometimes referred to as Economic Sociology of Law.

Her earlier research explored the potential for national legal systems to act as a communal resource in interactions between foreign investment, state and civil society actors; the impact of the World Bank Doing Business Indicators on international and national investment law and policy; and the impact of economics on legal thinking more generally.

Geographical coverage:

Amanda has conducted detailed field-based research in India, Sri Lanka and Cyprus.

Professor Diamond Ashiagbor

Professor of Law and Director of Postgraduate Research, Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK. Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Editorial board of London Review of International Law.

Expertise:

An interdisciplinary legal scholar whose work spans labour, regions, development, economic sociology of law, and law and the humanities. Diamond researches on labour and employment law – within the UK, European Union and internationally; international trade and social regionalism; law and development; regionalism (the European Union and the African Union); human rights, equality and multiculturalism. Her current research investigates the social dimension of regional economic integration and the colonial origins of contemporary labour markets.

Geographical coverage

Labour law, trade, development, regionalism and regional integration, with a focus on the European Union and the African Union.

Policy work

Diamond has worked as a senior expert/consultant to project teams for European Commission-funded studies into EU labour and equality law, and access to justice. She has served as advisor on labour law to the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

ORCID

Dr Nkechikwu Valerie Azinge

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Lincoln, UK.

Expertise:

International economic law, international financial regulation and international business law.

Geographical coverage:

Works on the interaction between global standards and local contexts with a focus on how international financial regulations affect policy adaptations in African countries and emerging economies. She focuses particularly on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorists financing regulations.

Policy work:

Worked with health-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs ) to improve healthcare access in Nigeria and the Commonwealth.

Dr Grietje (River) BaarsLink opens in a new window

Reader in Law and Social Change and Director of the Centre for Law & Social Change at SOAS. Occasional faculty at the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School, USA.

Expertise:

I work on the corporation in the global political economy and am part of an international and interdisciplinary working group on the role of law in global value chains. I recently published The Corporation, Law, and Capitalism: A Radical Perspective on the Role of Law in the Global Political Economy, (Brill 2019/Haymarket Books 2020) and The Corporation: A Critical, Multi-Disciplinary Handbook (CUP, 2017). My subject expertise lies generally in international law (public international law, international human rights and humanitarian law, international criminal law, and international investment arbitration). My focus in the past years has been the field of business and human rights/corporate accountability, which I approach from a critical perspective.

Geographical coverage:

UK, Europe and Global.

Policy work:

I work on theory (specifically Marxist theory) and the intersection between theory and activism/political organising. In that context I also work on alternative organisational forms such as coops, governance and accountability in alternative contexts, and anticapitalist organising in the broadest (and deepest) sense. I work with a number of groups and networks and welcome new connections for collaborations, workshops and PhD projects. I am on the advisory board of Corporate Watch and have worked with them on several projects.

Dr Stephen Connelly

Reader, School of Law, University of Warwick, UK.

Expertise:

International private law of international finance, notably legal issues of credit facilities agreements, bonds, security, syndication and securitisation, derivatives, money and money equivalents, central counterparties, and banking and investment funds law and regulation. His theoretical interests include the origins of political economy and the theory of economic regulation.

Geographical coverage:

International finance, wherever English law is applicable.

Policy work:

Stephen works with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide detailed legal advice on matters of international finance. He has worked with Jubilee Debt Campaign on the fallout from the Mozambique tuna bond scandal, and related legislative proposals. In 2020 he advised Jubilee Debt Campaign and Oxfam on a legislative proposal to support the G20’s debt service suspension initiative. He has spoken at the UK Parliament on aspects of foreign direct investment.

Dr Johanna del Pilar Cortés-Nieto

Profesora Principal, School of Law and a member of the Research Group in Public Law and Mutis Group (an interdisciplinary research cluster which focuses on socio-environmental conflicts ), Universidad del Rosario, Colombia.

Expertise:

International development, law and poverty, human rights and constitutional law. The intersections between development (policy and practice), poverty and law.

Geographical coverage:

A broad range of international and national issues, with a particular focus on how international economic law and development policies affect developing countries, specifically Colombia. Her current research explores how international economic law coupled with local struggles shape social and environmental impact assessments in the context of big development projects.

Policy work:

Has worked for the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Her work at the court focused on cases related to social and economic rights, rights of indigenous peoples and socio-environmental conflicts.

Dr Lorenzo Cotula

Principal Researcher and Head of Law, Economies and Justice Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK.

Expertise:

Lorenzo leads research and action on the place of law in strategies to promote fair, sustainable economies – cutting across land and natural resource governance; international economic law; human rights; political economy of natural resources, investment and trade; and legal empowerment, citizen agency and public accountability. 

Geographical coverage: 

Covering issues globally, extensive country experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Policy work:

Has worked with governments, non-governmental organisations (from big internationals to grassroots organisations), UN agencies, World Bank, European Parliament, UNIDROIT and regional intergovernmental organisations.

Dr Daria Davitti

Senior Lecturer, Lund University, Faculty of Law, Sweden.Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham, School of Law, UK. Head of Forced Migration Unit, Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham, UK. Visiting Professor, College of Europe, Natolin Campus, Warsaw, Poland.

Expertise:

Public international law, international human rights law, international investment law, international refugee law, health law, business and human rights, and sustainable development.

Geographical coverage:

Global work on international human rights protection within the context of privatisation, with a focus on the increased role of corporate non-state actors in situations of emergency, armed conflict and 'crises' of different types, including forced displacement, health emergencies and climate collapse. Currently involved in two projects: 1) "Liquid Borders", examines the privatisation and financialisation of border control, not least through refugee finance and 2) "The European Green Deal and the SDG" (with Dr Britta Sjöstedt, Lund University), examines the viability of the financial instruments promoted to fund a 'just transition' towards a greener Europe, including green and blue bonds.

Policy work:

Collaborates with UN Special Procedures and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on matters related to international law, health and sustainable development, international investment law, business and human rights, international refugee law.

Dr Gamze Erdem Türkelli

Associate Research Professor, Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Principal Investigator – European Research Council Starting Grant funded GENESIS Proejct (www.genesis-erc.eu)

Member of New Frontiers in International Development Finance (NeF DeF) project and Law and Development Research Network (LDRN).

Expertise:

Dr. Erdem Türkelli’s research focuses on international law & sustainable development, the law of responsibility, transnational human rights obligations and children’s rights.

She is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Starting Grant funded GENESIS Proejct, which investigates how multistakeholder partnerships operate in the intersection of sustainable development and human rights legal frameworks, particularly when they provide public goods.

A second line of research focuses on the interactions between private and hybrid actors, multilateral development banks and development finance institutions on one hand and developing states and rights-holders on the other. In this context, Gamze also focuses on children’s rights

Specific Subject Expertise:

Multi-stakeholder partnerships for development, business and human/children’s rights, development finance, EU aid and development partnership policies.

Geographical coverage:

Dr. Erdem Türkelli works on issues at the intersection of human rights, sustainable development and development financing globally and teaches on aid, trade and investment as cross-cutting regimes for financing development with a focus on the European Union and European financial institutions among other actors.

Policy work:

Dr. Erdem Türkelli has undertaken policy-oriented research for civil society actors and acted as a consultant for public institutions on human rights-based approaches to development, particularly in the context of children’s rights. She has participated in global and regional consultations of international organisations and human rights bodies and has co-authored several amicus briefs in human rights cases.

ORCID

Dr Michael Fakhri

Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon, USA. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2020-2026.

Expertise:

Geographical coverage:

A broad range of international and national issues, with a particular focus on the relationship between transnational labor movements, transnational social movements and international institutions. Has focused on the Levant and Arctic using TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) and critical race theory.

Policy work:

Current UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2020-2023). General duties include advocacy, research and reporting. Directly engaged with national governments, civil society and international civil servants through the Food Systems Summit 2021; Committee on World Food Security; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international institutions on issues relating to trade and food.

ORCID

Claiton Fyock

PhD candidate, School of Law, University of Leicester, UK.

Expertise:

International economic law and law and development, more specifically the nexus between international investment law and development. Engages with the relation between capitalist notions of development and these notion’s impact on states in the global south. His work combines critical theory and political economy with international law while also exploring similar dynamics in environmental protection and the sustainable development goals.

Geographical coverage:

Researches the relationship between high-income capital-exporting states and low-income capital-importing states primarily from the global south. He analyses the global south states’ interaction with narratives of development present in international investment law and how the regime potentially constrains state actors’ politico-legal agency.

Dr Clair Gammage

Professor of International Commercial Law at the University of Exeter.

Expertise:

A scholar of law and development whose work has focused on the intersections between international trade law, human rights, gender, labour standards, environment and sustainable development. Her expertise lies in regional trade agreements and her work explores social and environmental issues that arise in the context of these regulatory frameworks. Clair’s approach is motivated by the aim to demystify legal phenomena and identify regulatory gaps which may have unexpected or adverse implications for development (broadly understood) in both the formal and informal economies. Her work highlights the need to (re)conceive international trade law as a means to development and not solely as the ends of development. She has a keen interest in jurisprudence and philosophy. Her current work is exploring the intersection between trade and gender and the idea of a gendered reading of international economic law.

Geographical coverage:

The EU’s external relations with developing countries in its free trade agreements (FTAs) and under the Cotonou Agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Academic lead on trade and investment cluster within an EU Horizon 2020 project, Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART), and leading their report on policy coherence for development. Recent work looks at how the UK’s future trade and development cooperation frameworks after Brexit should be constructed.

Policy work:

Member of a Chatham House Advisory Group for trade and human rights. Has given evidence before the UK and EU parliaments on matters relating to free trade agreements and human rights issues.

Dr Martha Gayoye

Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Keele University, UK.

Expertise:

Courts, constitutionalism and gender.

Geographical coverage:

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Policy work:

I have previously worked for six years with the Commission on Revenue Allocation in Kenya as a legal affairs manager, offering legal advisory on constitutional principles of revenue sharing and public finance management.

Dr Edward Guntrip

Senior Lecturer in International Law, Sussex Law School, University of Sussex, UK.

Expertise: 

Former solicitor (Western Australia and England and Wales) specialising in dispute resolution. Research focuses on how international investment law and investor-state dispute settlement intersect with human rights. Publications have adopted doctrinal, critical and socio-legal approaches to understand why investor-state dispute settlement does not address human rights, how human rights can be introduced into the legal framework of international investment law and investor-state dispute settlement and how power influences the relationships between states, foreign investors and local populations in international investment law. Recent publications include a book entitled 'Counterclaims in Investment Arbitration: Holding Foreign Investors Accountable for Violations of International Law'Link opens in a new window, published by Brill in June 2024.

Geographical coverage: 

International investment law and investor-state dispute settlement generally, with a particular focus on the intersection of investment and human rights.

Policy work: 

Has worked with international organisations, think tanks, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Advised the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights on the human rights implications of using investor-state dispute settlement to resolve sovereign debt disputes (UN Doc A/72/153). Engaged with the UN Working Group on business and human rights on creating a human rights compatible international investment agreement (initial submission).

Professor James Harrison

Professor, School of Law, University of Warwick, UK. Co-director of the Centre for Human Rights in Practice.

Expertise:

International trade and investment law, and the regulation of transnational corporations. He has a particular interest in how workers’ welfare, human rights and sustainable development are affected by international trade and investment law and corporative activity. His work suggests new and alternative ways of addressing those issues.

Geographical coverage:

Trade and investment law issues globally. Recent projects have focused on EU trade agreements with South Korea, the Caribbean and Moldova, future UK trade policy and companies who are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Taught international economic law courses in the UK and Ethiopia.

Policy work:

Worked with UN agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments and inter-governmental bodies on various trade, investment and corporate regulatory projects. Recent policy-orientated work includes on trade and gender for the Women’s Budget Group, on the impacts of trade agreements on workers' lives with various organisations and human rights, trade and investment agreements in the UK parliament. He is a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Expert Advisory Group on Trade and Sustainability and is co-convener of the Brussels-based ‘trade sustainable development group’.

Dr Jean Ho

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Expertise:

Common and civil-law trained international lawyer who specializes in international economic law. Interested in the protection afforded by international law to contractual and property rights. Publishes widely on other aspects of international economic law. Nominated expert on the UNIDROIT Working Group on land agricultural investment contracts. An elected member of the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law. The first invitee to record lectures for the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law in three UN working languages – English, French, and Mandarin.

Geographical coverage:

Recent and forthcoming works address mostly international issues, such investor accountability under international law, and the mechanics behind assimilating mega corporations to sovereigns and the indelible yet underrated role that these corporations have played and continue to play in the making of international law.

Policy work:

Advised the Singapore government on legislative reform impacting curial support for international arbitration, and has been consulted on other areas of regulatory interest, such as the streamlining of civil procedure in Singapore courts and the resolution of intellectual property disputes. Currently advising several foreign governments on their investment treaty regimes.

Professor Annamaria La Chimia

Professor of Law and Development and Co-Director Interdisciplinary Research Cluster on Rights, Justice and Global Challenges, School of Law, University of Nottingham, UK. Member of Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) and founding member of the European Association Public Private Partnership (EAPPP). Procurement Special Advisor EU External Action Capacity Building Mission in Somalia. Research Fellow, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Co-Investigator of the Rising from the Depth Network.

Expertise:

International development, sustainable public procurement law and human rights (with a special focus on aid and food procurement (especially school meal programs), and gender and procurement), international trade law and European law. Has conducted extensive research on aid, aid and migration, aid effectiveness and tied aid policies in the context of EU law and World Trade Organization (WTO) law. Interested in developing countries' procurement policies and systems within the context of administrative law reforms, aid governance and aid harmonization, investigating the role the state can play to promote sustainable development through its purchasing power. Recently she has conducted work on the procurement response to the emergency caused by the pandemic of COVID-19,on the equality impact of food for schools policies, and on gender-responsive procurement in Latin American Countries. Her work lies at the intersection between public/administrative law and trade (international and European) law.

Policy work:

Expert advisor for the World Bank, the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), for the German Agency GIZ, for the European Commission (Directorate General Trade and Directorate General Development). Consultant for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) ActionAid and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Lyla Latif

Teaching Fellow at Warwick Law School. Kenyan qualified Advocate, Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public and CEO at Lai’Latif & Consulting. Co-founder and Chair of the Committee of Fiscal Studies at Nairobi. Non-Executive Director with Tax Justice Network, appointed member of the inaugural Tax Law Committee of the East Africa Law Society, Advisory Board member of the International Lawyers Project and Senior Tax Adviser and Trainer at Capabuild. Member of the Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) and the Law Society of Kenya.

Expertise:

Expertise in fiscal systems, public finance and development. Studies the physical and digital aspects of revenue generation, its allocation and spending towards economic and social needs. Also considers the institutionalised and illicit pathways through which revenue leaks and is lost. Examines how the norms and structures created through the constitutional, African, and Islamic fiscal systems either support or undermine economic and social rights from a revenue and spending perspective. Research work takes a heterodox critique to the mainstream colonial-influenced fiscal regimes that many developing countries have adapted to.

Geographical coverage: 

Mainly focused on the fiscal regimes in Africa and the continent’s approach to securing its fiscal space to finance development and to leverage on the digital economy. Beyond Africa, has also studied the fiscal systems of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Qatar and UAE. Has also extensively researched on the taxation and regulation of FinTech in Latin America.

Policy work:

Made policy recommendations for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, WHO, UNCTAD, OHCHR, UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, UNAIDS, UNGA Economic and Financial Committee, the Tax Justice Network Africa, East Africa Tax and Governance Network, Africa Forum for Debt and Development, SEATINI, the Kenyan and German Parliaments and several international/national organisations. Currently supporting UNDP to formulate policy proposals for adoption on wealth taxation, and proposing public finance measures for Sri Lanka to adopt to mitigate against the nation’s current fiscal crisis. Her publications can be accessed here.

Professor John LinarelliLink opens in a new window

Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh.

Expertise:

International economic law. Global justice. Inequality. Debt and access to credit. Law and finance. Moral and political philosophy. Methods.

Geographical coverage:

Global with some emphasis on China.

Policy work:

Various development banks, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). 

Dr Maria Jose Luque Macias

A Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University (Belgium). Member of the Global Network on Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE).

Expertise:

Previous research focused on the analysis of several legal and policy developments relating to international investment protectionin Latin America, including through the lens of international human rights law. Her doctoral monograph was published under the title Re-Politicising International Investment Law in Latin America through the Duty to Regulate Paradigm. Current research work investigates selected aspects of the human rights and environment debate. These range from recent normative developments within the Inter-American Human Rights System, to those concerning the soft-law regulation of (transnational) corporations (on the basis of the UNGP, OECD Guidelines) and selected economic sectors (mining).

Geographical coverage:

Latin America, Developing Countries

Professor Fiona Macmillan

Expertise:

International economic law, intellectual property and cultural property, with a particular interest in the way in which the operation of these areas of law impact on issues around development and the protection of the environment. Her work is located at the intersection(s) of critical legal theory, political economy and discourses of post-coloniality. Her current research project considers the relationship between intellectual and cultural property and the way in which this relationship impacts on political questions around the relationship between market and community.

Geographical coverage:

Issues arising globally in the contexts of international economic law, intellectual property and cultural property. She focuses on the way in which these areas of law are shaped by their interaction with global movements of capital.

Policy work:

Worked with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments and inter-governmental agencies on issues of post-colonial justice, development and the protection of the environment in the context of international economic law, and intellectual and cultural property law.

Dr Liam McHugh-Russell

Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada. Member, Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory, McGill University, Canada.

Expertise:

International development law and policy, with a focus on the interactions between labour law and development, corporate governance, and the international politics of development governance. Current work addresses how conflict over the content and structure of development policy in international institutions is mediated through struggles between diverse knowledge communities, using case studies of ‘informality’ at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank’s Doing Business project.

Geographical coverage:

Liam’s work is primarily concerned with the ways in which local law and policy in developing countries is shaped by international institutions, global political economy and dominant knowledge practices, especially by the fields of law and economics, corporate governance and labour law .

Policy work:

Liam has been a consultant at the ILO in Geneva, working on research concerned with ILO procedural and constitutional issues.

Dr Liliane Mouan

Lecturer Emerging Markets and Associate Course Director, Coventry University, UK. Associate Fellow at the Transnational Law Institute, King's College London, where she coordinates the Global Supply Chain Law and Governance Research Network.

Expertise

An interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests lie at the intersection of law and political economy. Her primary research focus is on the role and complexities of transparency in transnational regulatory governance - with a focus on labour, tax and natural resource governance. She combines this with a strong interest in corruption and illicit financial flows, Africa’s international economic relations, the developmental impacts of large infrastructure projects, and public procurement and human rights. She recently co-led an exploratory research project on "Integrity, Human Rights and Public Procurement in Energy Projects in Brazil" funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and is co-editor of a recent openDemocracy expert discussion that examines, among other things, the impacts of EU development aid on African migration.

Policy work

Worked as a researcher and consultant for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Transparency International. Contributed to a 2018 report published by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) titled Seeing Through Transparency: Making Corporate Accountability Work for Workers. Currently serves as an adviser for Amnesty International’s regional office for East and Southern Africa and is a member of the Extractive-Led Local Economic Diversification (ELLED) Community of Practice managed by the Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank.

Dr Shavana Musa

Lecturer in International Law, University of Manchester, UK. Visiting Professor, China-EU School of Law, China University of Political Science, China. Transatlantic Technology Law Forum Fellow, Stanford Law School, Stanford University, USA.

Expertise:

Public international law, international dispute resolution, business and human rights, international economic law, international investment law, security law and sustainable development.

Geographical coverage:

Global work on the implementation of human rights within industry practices and trade and investment agreements. Current joint project with Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) around Sustainability and Human Rights Impact Assessment (SIAs) and investment treaties.

Policy work:

Advises international organisations, governments and industry on international law, business human rights and global disputes.

Dr Serena Natile

School of Law, University of Warwick, UK. Managing editor of the International Journal of Law in Context. 

Expertise:

Mainly in the areas of law and development, global political economy, gender studies, international labour and social security law, finance and digital technologies. Brings together socio-legal enquiry, critical political economy analysis and feminist decolonial approaches to examine issues of coloniality, social reproduction and (mal)distribution and, more generally, the relationship between law and socioeconomic (in)justice. Recently published the book The Exclusionary Politics of Digital Financial Inclusion: Mobile Money, Gendered Walls for the RIPE Series in Global Political Economy of Routledge. Also interested in critical and radical pedagogies and discussions around repairing the IEL curriculum.

Geographical coverage:

The interactions between global dynamics and local contexts with a particular focus on the distributive role of law, finance and technology. Serena has conducted research and collaborated with grassroots organisations in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Brazil. Serena is currently leading two research projects: (1) A Feminist Recovery Plan for Covid-19 and Beyond: Learning from Grassroots Activism which maps the post-Covid feminist recovery plans advocated by local and global feminist organisations with the purpose to collectively reimagine a recovery that places grassroots feminist expertise at the centre of policy-making; and (2) Transnational Social Security Law in the Digital Age which brings together community organisers, academics and policy-makers to conceptualise and implement a transnational legal framework for social security (regarded not as charity or aid but as the global responsibility to guarantee decent living standards for All) that considers the limits and potential of digital technologies in facilitating the realisation of social protection schemes at the global level.

Policy work: 

Work is inspired by engagement with activists and local communities and collaborations with feminist organisations. Serena has worked on migration and asylum unit for the Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union (2010) and for the EU-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative in Brussels (2011). She has published policy briefs on Feminist Recovery Plans for Covid-19 and Beyond and Assessing the Role of Digital Finance for Gender Equality.

Professor Tonia Novitz

Professor of Labour Law, University of Bristol, UK. A vice president of the Institute of Employment Rights and UK representative on the advisory board of International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW).

Expertise:

International labour law, international and EU trade law, human rights, sustainable development, legal theory.

Geographical coverage:

International regulation of trade in goods and services, considering labour conditionality as well as effects on work and workers. Also engaged in research into sustainability and sustainable development clauses in trade instruments and policy. Investigating issues of collective worker representation and voice within international institutions and other settings.

Policy work:

Has assisted and/or worked on projects with the International Labor Rights Forum (US), the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Has engaged in a variety of funded projects addressing different aspects of trade and labour, including an EU Horizon 2020 Project ‘Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade’ (SMART) and a Swedish Research Council Project on regulation for sustainable labour markets.

Harshad Pathak

Consultant (International Arbitration) at Mayer Brown Paris
Visiting Faculty at NLSIU - BangaloreLink opens in a new window
PhD Researcher at University of Geneva.

Dr Karina Patricio Ferreira Lima

Lecturer in Commercial Law at the University of Leeds, UK. Affiliated to the Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL) and the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), supported by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).

Expertise

Global economic governance, international financial institutions, and the international and domestic legal infrastructures of money and finance. Has a particular interest in the role of law in development, innovation and environmental sustainability strategies. Has a solid knowledge in the fields of international monetary law, sovereign debt and sovereign insolvency.

Geographical coverage

Works mostly on issues of global governance, including the interaction between international, transnational and domestic legal infrastructures. As it regards domestic legal infrastructures, has a particular interest in Latin America.

Policy work

Worked with governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on issues of global economic and labour governance.

Harpreet Kaur Paul

PhD candidate, School of Law, University of Warwick, UK. Solicitor, REDRESS (an anti-torture litigation NGO), UK. Co-Director at People & Planet and Deputy Representative to the UN (New York) at Amnesty International.

Expertise:

A scholar of the nexus of law and sustainable governance. Harpreet aims to combine conceptual and theoretical insight with doctrinal and empirical research methods so as to better understand how these fields create and enshrine inequality, as well as reveal possibilities to address and redress the root causes of inequality. Deeply inter-disciplinary, her work draws insights and perspectives from international political economy, international relations, science and technology studies and debates in intersectionality, anti-colonialism and critical geography.

Geographical coverage:

International: The international governance of climate change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with a particular interest in climate financing that aims to repair and redress the adverse impacts of climate change. Harpreet also explores the role of non-UNFCCC international bodies, such as the UN Human Rights treaty bodies in aiming to address the justice aspects of climate governance.

Regional governance: Regional human rights mechanisms (Europe, Latin America, Africa) and their jurisprudence relating to climate change and human rights law.

Policy work:

Harpreet led the drafting of the Civil Society Review's 2019 report Can Climate Change Fuelled Loss And Damage Ever Be Fair? which was launched and distributed at the UNFCCC's 25th Conference of Parties (COP) held in Madrid in December 2019. She also wrote the April 2019 ActionAid report Market mechanisms for loss and damage climate finance fail human rights test. In 2016, she was the Peter Harris Trust Fellow at the Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group where she developed research papers to inform policy positions on the role of public procurement in protecting workers' human rights and progressing sustainable sourcing.

Dr Nicolas M. Perrone

Research Professor of International Law, Universidad Andrés Bello, Viña del Mar, Chile.

Expertise:

The global economy and law, particularly international investment, trade and multinational corporations. My research looks at how the law is implicated in the economy, uncovering the distributive and normative effects that present rules have on states, corporations and people, especially local communities. Most of my work has focused on international investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), examining the history, interpretation and purpose of this legal regime. Recently, I have begun a new project looking into speed and social acceleration as part of a new vocabulary to understand the relations between the global economy and law.

Geographical coverage:

My research takes the global economy as a complex network of social relations, involving the global, national and local levels. Most of the national and local cases studies and evidence underpinning my work come from Latin America.

Policy work:

I have worked or consulted for several international organisations and Latin American governments. I collaborate with several think tanks, being presently involved in a project to rethink international trade for a consortium of social organisations.

Professor Sol Picciotto

Emeritus Professor, Lancaster University Law School, UK. Senior Fellow, International Centre for Tax and Development ,Institute of Development Studies, UK. Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, UK. Visiting Professor at the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE),University of Warwick, UK.

Expertise:

International economic and business law and regulation, particularly international business taxation and including international intellectual property, international regulation of finance, illicit financial flows, the offshore financial secrecy and tax haven system.

Geographical coverage:

Taxation of international business in developing countries, particularly in Africa, as well as the EU and UK.

Policy work:

Reform of international tax rules especially through the G20/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS); coordinator of the BEPS Monitoring Group; senior adviser, Tax Justice Network; member of steering group of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT).

Dr Enrique Prieto-Rios

School of Law, Research Group in International Law and Associate Professor at the School of Law - Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. Visiting Lecturer at the School of Law, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Visiting Fellow at the Osgoode School of Law, York, UK. Visiting Fellow at the School of Law, University of Warwick and a Sessional Lecturer at the Birkbeck School of Law.

Expertise:

International economic law specifically, international investment law and business and human rights. Special interest in the existent crossroads between international economic law, coloniality, development, capitalism and neoliberalism.

Geographical coverage:

International issues with direct impact on domestic policies and legislation with a particular focus on the effects of international economic law upon the so called Third World using the lenses of decolonial theory.

Policy work:

Has been director of the British and Colombian Lawyers Association (BRICOL), intern at the International Bar Association (IBA) and a consultant for law firms in Bogotá and in London.

Dr Mizanur Rahaman

Assistant Professor and Assistant Director, Centre for Postgraduate Legal Studies (CPGLS), Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.

Expertise:

Global expansion of intellectual property law, specifically issues surrounding patent law and propertisation of bio-genetic resources and traditional knowledge, geographical indications (GIs) and collective claims over intangible cultural heritage in developing countries. Dr Rahaman also works on international trade law and social issues, specifically the conjunctions and disjunctions between trade, investment, development and the protection of socio-economic rights. Current work explores the global expansion of patent law and geographical indications, the emergence of new forms and spaces of property rights, shifting norms of intellectual property enforcement, protection in free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs).

Geographical coverage:

Critical and contemporary issues in intellectual property law, specifically patent and geographical indications, both global and local, with a particular focus on India and developing countries. Recent work investigates issues in connection with investment law, in particular, how BITs have affected the land rights of ethnic tribes in Ethiopia and struggles to protect socio-cultural rights.

Policy work:

Worked with and assisted a number of grassroots non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the southern part of Ethiopia, specifically in framing strategies to contest the privatisation of land by foreign corporations; and issues surrounding the claim of property rights by ‘internally displaced persons’ (IDPs).

Anna Saunders

Lecturer in Law at the Australian National University (from November 2024).

Expertise
International law of intellectual property, technology transfer, and the intersections of international law, technology and climate. Qualified as an Australian legal practitioner.

Geographical coverage:

International law and Australian domestic law.

Policy work:

Past work includes drafting policy papers and law reform submissions, developing legal databases, and evaluating national laws for compliance with international obligations for international monitoring bodies.

Professor Sharifah Sekalala

Professor of Global Health Law and Director of Equality and Diversity, School of Law, University of Warwick, UK.

Expertise:

Global health law; infectious disease, international organisations, global health financing, gender, digital health.

Geographical coverage:

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Policy work:

Worked with international organisations such as World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO) and The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Working with the British Medical Association on human rights in a post-COVID world (1-year project). Maastricht 1V group advising on health rights: Human rights obligations for future generations and Nuffield Council on Bioethics: Working Group Research on Global Health Emergencies.

Dr Jimena Sierra-Camargo

Research Associate Professor, Universidad Católica de Colombia, Colombia. Adjunct Lecturer, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. Visiting Researcher Fellow, Transnational Law Institute, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London, UK. Visiting Researcher Fellow, Centre for Critical International Law, Kent Law School, The University of Kent, UK.

Expertise:

International law, transnational law, critical development studies, human rights and legal aesthetics. Her work investigates mainly the role international law and development policies play in the shaping of rule of law in the global south, and in the emerging of social and environmental conflicts strongly connected to development discourses transplanted in the global south; and how it reproduces colonial legacies that revives and updates the inequalities between South and North.

Geographical coverage:

Human Rights, socio-legal methods and development issues, with a particular interest in how international law and development discourses practices and policies impact developing countries and define the uses of space within a global political economy.

Policy work:

Jimena has worked with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international organisations and public institutions such as the Ombudsman Office in Colombia, on human rights, international law, public law and social and environmental conflicts related to development issues.

Dr Regis Y. Simo 

Senior Researcher, Mandela Institute, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Expertise:

Works on international economic law, especially, world trade law, law and development and African regional integration. His work also explores non-economic concerns such as labour standards, environment and sustainable development issues. With expertise in regional trade agreements, his recent and forthcoming works analyse legal and policy issues emerging from the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Geographical coverage:

Global trade and investment issues. Also interested in EU’s external relations with developing countries under the Cotonou Agreement, the future UK trade policy with Africa, as well as the US trade relations with African countries under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) and future free trade agreements (FTAs). Studies Francophone and Anglophone Africa and issues relating to African continental economic integration.

Policy work:

Has worked as consultant in several donor-funded trade-related technical assistance projects in Africa, particularly issues relating to trade in services, trade facilitation and regional trade agreements.

Professor Celine Tan

Professor in the School of Law, University of Warwick, UK. Director of the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE) at Warwick. A fellow of the Warwick Institute for Global Sustainable Development and a member of the Law and Development Research Network (LDRN).

Expertise:

Works on the intersections between international economic law and international development policy and practice. Has an interest in the relationship between law, international finance, sovereign debt and international development and has published on issues relating to the law and governance of the international financial architecture, sovereign debt, climate change and sustainable development, the role of international financial institutions and human rights.

Geographical coverage: 

A broad range of international and national issues, with a particular focus on how international economic law, financial regulation and development policies affect developing countries, especially low-income countries. Her current project explores the law and governance implications of the new financial architecture for financing sustainable development.

Policy work:

Has worked with international organisations and international and national civil society groups and think tanks on issues relating to social and economic development and human rights. She and other Warwick colleagues recently advised the UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights on the complicity of international financial institutions (IFIs) for human rights violations caused by their policies and operations. She has also published policy briefs on development finance and expert opinions on accountability mechanisms of international financial institutions.

Dr Ntina Tzouvala

Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, School of Global and Public Law (January 2025) ; Global Fellow, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Expertise:

Dr Tzouvala focuses on the political economy of international law. She is particularly interested in the distributional effects of international legal fields that are not often analysed in terms of political economy, such as the law on the use of force (jus ad bellum). She is currently working on a project on dollar hegemony as law-making power in the international realm. Her second monograph focuses on the political economy of public international law and is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Geographical coverage:

Dr Tzouvala focuses on the political economy of international law. She is particularly interested in the distributional effects of international legal fields that are not often analysed in terms of political economy, such as the law on the use of force (jus ad bellum). She is currently developing a new project on the political economy of war and on how it shapes international law in ways that perpetuate economic domination, exploitation and inequality.

Policy work:

Dr Tzouvala is Senior Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Her work focuses on the way international law shapes commodity chains and enables the concentration of power in the food sector.

Dr Tara Van Ho

Lecturer, School of Law, University of Essex, UK. Co-director of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project within the Essex Human Rights Centre, UK.

Expertise:

Bridges the gap between corporate law, international investment law, human rights law, tort law, the laws of armed conflict and transitional justice, considering how these areas can and should interact so as to operationalise human rights standards in the modern business context. Particularly interested in how investment law specifically, and international economic law and modern company law generally, can impact issues of peace and stability, institutionalise war crimes and embed privileges. Has published works on how investment agreements and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) can impact land restitution processes, remedial processes for business impacts on human rights, and the human rights responsibilities of various legal actors, including financial actors such as mutual funds.

Geographical coverage:

Works on issues of investment, business and human rights globally. Has contributed to works on the human rights, labour and environmental impacts of European corporations in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Policy work:

Principle drafter of principles for financially supporting reconstruction efforts in post-conflict states. Has worked in collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to advocate for stronger rules and regulations for businesses in Palestine, Colombia and Europe. Has advised the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and has informed discussions on the proposed binding treaty on business and human rights.

Dr Paolo VargiuLink opens in a new window

Lecturer in Law, University of Leicester, UK.

Expertise:

Dual trained (common and civil law) public international lawyer with extensive experience in investment law, international commercial arbitration and human rights. Particularly interested in the role and functions of arbitrators and the global effects of bilateral investment treaties and arbitral awards. Current projects in progress deal with the critique of multilateral approaches to international investment agreements, the social and psychological underpinnings of commercial arbitration and the recognition of disabled individuals as persons in international law. Speaks English, Italian and Spanish.

Geographical coverage:

His work mainly addresses global issues, with particular attention to bilateral regulation of economic and business relationships. Past projects have addressed region-specific issues of investment regulation in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and continental Europe.

Policy work:

Advised a number of national and local chambers of commerce on the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, the establishment of commercial arbitration rules and matters of equality, diversity and inclusion. Currently advising several civil liberties groups and no-governmental organisations (NGOs) on discrimination matters, with particular focus on the treatment of disabled individuals internationally and nationally.

Dr. Flávia do Amaral Vieira

Research Fellow of the "Imperialism, Business and Human Rights" project at Tilburg University. Fellow for the Resilience Fund of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Dr Vieira is also a UNDP consultant for the Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights.

Dr. Flávia do Amaral Vieira

Research Fellow of the "Imperialism, Business and Human Rights" project at Tilburg University. Fellow for the Resilience Fund of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Dr Vieira is also a UNDP consultant for the Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights.

Priscilla Vitoh

Lecturer, School of Law, University of Leicester, UK.

Expertise:

Priscilla’s research centres on the different layers of social fields such as formal legislation, social norms, industry regulation and financial organisations’ internal policies. She integrates conceptual and theoretical understanding with empirical research techniques to understand how these social fields affect aspects of women’s economic life, including access to formal finance and labour relations. Priscilla is a former Bank Relationship Manager specialising in Maritime Banking and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) Lending.

Geographical coverage:

The interactions between Global and National policies and regulations in finance and labour and how these impact the Anglophone Sub-Saharan West African context.

Policy work:

Advises industry in Ghana and Liberia on International Labour Law and national laws on decent work for domestic workers.

Yentyl Williams

PhD Researcher, School of Law, University of Bristol, UK.

Expertise:

Yentyl‘s research focuses on ‘The EU and Innovation in International Trade - A case study of the Intellectual Property (IP) provisions on Geographical Indications (GI) in the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)’. Her academic areas of research include international economic law, World Trade Organization (WTO) and international trade law, EU law, globalisation and food policies, Caribbean, indigenous and marginalised methodologies.

Geographic coverage:

Yentyl’s academic and policy work has concentrated predominantly on trade law between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, including extensive field research across the regions. Yentyl has also worked on EU coordination in fragile states, particularly with field work in Niger and Palestine.

Policy work:

Yentyl has several years of work experience on EU relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states, in the public (European Commission, The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA), European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)) and private sector (consulting), as well as in academia (Ghent University; PhD at Bristol University).

Yentyl is also founder and director of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network (ACP YPN) which works on youth inclusion in policy-making. Yentyl represents the network in their membership of the EU-Cariforum Consultative Committee at the European Economic and Social Committee monitoring the trade agreement between the EU and Caribbean countries.

Dr Anil Yilmaz Vastardis

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Essex, UK. Co-director of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project within the Essex Human Rights Centre, UK.

Expertise:

Bridges the gap between corporate law, international investment law, human rights law, labour law and tort law, examining how these areas can and should interact so as to operationalise human rights standards in the modern business context. Particularly interested in reimagining business regulation so as to alleviate the adverse impacts of the privileges of capital embedded in the law on human rights and welfare of communities. Has published works on parent-subsidiary relationships in the business and human rights context, non-financial reporting, duty of care in supply chain relationships, human rights in investment contracts and the embedded inequalities in the investment treaty regime.

Geographical coverage:

Works on the interaction of investment, business and human rights regimes issues globally. Has contributed to works on human rights, labour and environmental impacts of European corporations in Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Policy work:

Currently working with the CORE Coalition on the development of a mandatory human rights due diligence law for businesses based in the UK. Has worked in collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and law firms based in the UK and Germany on business and human rights litigation and policymaking.

Kangle Zhang

Assistant Professor at Peking University Law School, Beijing, China. Research fellow at Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Expertise

Geographical coverage

Financial market operations internationally. Sovereign debt-related issues in the global south. The ideational history of liberalism in the North Atlantic. US financial market operations and regulations. The centrality of New York state law and English common law in international finance.