Departmental news
Dr Lorenzo, Cotula, Visiting Research Fellow at GLOBE publishes a report on Land Investments, Accountability and the Law: Lessons from West Africa
The recent wave of land deals for agribusiness investments has highlighted the widespread demand for greater accountability in the governance of land and investment. Legal frameworks influence opportunities for accountability, and recourse to law has featured prominently in grassroots responses to the land deals. Drawing on comparative socio-legal research in Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, the report explores how the law enables, or constrains, accountability in investment processes. The report develops a conceptual framework for understanding accountability; assesses how national law in the three countries influences opportunities for accountability; and provides pointers for research and action.
The report is available (free) from the International Institute for Environment and Development, click here.
Sharifah Sekalala - 'The emerging norm of global representation in global health'
Sharif Sekalala is presenting a paper at a workshop on 'The emerging norm of global representation in global health' as part of 'Brown University's international Advanced Research Institute' which is focusing on global health in Madrid from the 10th - 16th of January 2016. Click here to read on.
Areas being discussed are politics of health care provision in the era of globalization. What are the bases of health policymaking in different countries and contexts? How does health care provision play out on the ground in particular places? Which public, private, and civil society organizations are involved and to what effect? What roles do international organizations and agencies play in health care funding, provision, and agenda-setting? Where do scientists, and scientific agencies, fit in? And how do the norms governing health care provision evolve over space and time?
GLOBE Centre welcomes first Visiting Academic
The Centre for the Law, Governance and Regulation of the Global Economy (GLOBE) welcomes its first Visiting Research Fellow, Dr Lorenzo Cotula who will be working with the Centre in academic year 2015 -16.
Dr Cotula is a principal researcher in law and sustainable development at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), where he leads the Legal Tools Team.
Lorenzo leads research, capacity and policy work on issues at the interface between law and international development, with a focus on the law governing natural resource rights and investments in low and middle-income countries. This includes work on international investment law, human rights, land rights and legal issues related to ‘land grabbing’, as well as the political economy of natural resource investments. Lorenzo also leads IIED’s work on ‘Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment’, an initiative to strengthen local rights and voices within natural resource investments in low and middle-income countries.
Before joining IIED in 2002, Lorenzo worked on assignments with the Legal Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He holds academic qualifications in law, development studies and sustainable business from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, the London School of Economics, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge.
Recent publications include Foreign Investment, Law and Sustainable Development: A Handbook on Agriculture and Extractive Industries; The Great African Land Grab? Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System; Human Rights, Natural Resource and Investment Law in a Globalised World: Shades of Grey in the Shadow of the Law; Investment Contracts and Sustainable Development: How to Make Contracts for Fairer and More sustainable Investments; and a wide range of research reports, journal articles and book chapters.
Lorenzo has previously collaborated with other GLOBE Centre researchers, including contributions to the Network on International Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/centres/ilnrsd/ ) , and will be working with GLOBE to organise a workshop on international investment law under the upcoming International Law in Context Workshop Series.
Law School - Annual Research Report 2015
The Annual Research Report showcases the varity and excellence of the law school's research activities, and the strength of the School as a research community.
Please see below for the report
Law School receives funding for International Economic Law in Context Workshop Series
Dr Celine Tan and Prof John McEldowney have been successful in their application to the SLSA Annual Seminar Competition for part funding of the proposed International Economic Law in Context Workshop Series. The series is planned to start in the 2015-2016 academic year.
Warwick Law School 7th in UK in Quality of Published Research
In the UK Research Excellence Framework results (announced 18 December 2014), Warwick Law School was assessed as coming 6th out of 67 Law Departments in terms of its Research Environment, 7th in terms of the Quality of its Research and 10th overall.
Full details can be found on the REF website.
New Book: Reforming Law and Economy for a Sustainable Earth: Critical Thoughts for Turbulent Times by Paul Anderson
Few concerns preoccupy contemporary progressive thought as much as the issue of how to achieve a sustainable human society. The problems impeding this goal include those of how to arrest induced global environmental change (GEC), persistent disagreements about the contribution of economic activities to GEC and further differences in views on how these activities can be reformed in order to reduce the rate of change and thus to mitigate threats to much life on Earth.
Julio Faundez to lecture at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Julio Faundez is to present his lecture, "Bringing About Legal and Political Change for Good Governance: Critical Perspectives on Douglass North and New Institutional Economics" on Friday 26 September at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.
New Book: 'Reflexive Labour Law in the World Society
Reflexive Labour Law in the World Society investigates trends in labour and employment law from the perspective of modern social systems theory.
It uses Niklas Luhmann’s theory of the world society and Gunther Teubner’s reflexive law concept for an analysis of modern employment law and industrial relations. Areas investigated include: reflexive employment protection; the reflexive regulation and deregulation of labour market policies and labour law; reflexivity in labour and employment conflict resolution; reflexive coordination and implementation of EU social and employment law; and reflexive global labour law.
New Book: 'Transforming European Employment Policy' by Ralf Rogowski (ed.)
Since the mid 1990s, the focus of European employment and social policy has shifted from protection to promotion. This book provides a timely analysis of this new form of governance, and the new forms of policy delivery and audit which accompany it.