The IEL Collective International Trade and Investment Working Group was established in July 2020 to address, and to provide interdisciplinary responses to, contemporary challenges in international trade and investment law. We are concerned with how trade and investment regimes expand and constrain our freedoms, capabilities and general well-being. The Working Group provides a forum that brings together expert scholars, policy-makers and policy-influencers, and civil society actors for discussion, knowledge exchange and thought leadership in critical discourses of trade, investment and development. As a Collective, we explore the effects of international trade and investment for development globally and we are committed to interrogating the diverse issue linkages that intersect with trade and investment, including (but not limited to): labour, human rights, gender, public health, education, creativity, technologies and digital innovation, procurement, competition, finance and tax.

An objective of the Working Group is to make technical and complex areas of international law and policy accessible to the general public. We aim to influence policy by providing expert evidence to influence governance at the international, regional and domestic levels. In the near future, we will begin to publish short policy briefs on key issues.

The Working Group is also focused on influencing critical pedagogy in the discipline of IEL drawing insights from third-world, postcolonial, heterodox, feminist, constructivist and other critical approaches. We aim to challenge mainstream pedagogical methodologies and epistemologies with a view to creating more inclusive approaches to IEL. We promote the sharing of good practices amongst IEL practitioners and teachers globally.

The International Trade and Investment Working Group welcomes affiliations from academics at all stages of their careers, from early career to senior scholars. In keeping with the founding principles and objectives of the IEL Collective, we support early-career researchers as mentors and friends. We also provide a supportive and warm environment for scholars and researchers at all stages of their career who share in the vision of the Collective.

For further information, please contact: ielcollective at warwick dot ac dot uk