Category: News

Call for submissions and active participants (by 17 June): Workshop on “Resistance to development projects in Latin America: Taking stock of the role of law” | Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia | 9 August 2019

On 9 August 2019, a workshop on “Resistance to development projects in Latin America: Taking stock of the role of law” will be organized at Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia by LDRN member Dr. Giedre Jokubauskaite (University of Glasgow) and Prof. Johanna Cortes Nieto (Universidad del Rosario).

Researchers interested in presenting at the workshop are asked to send a 300 word abstract to the organizers by 17 June 2019. Those interested in attending without presenting are asked to send an e-mail indicating their interest by the same date. Contact details and further information are available here in the full call for submissions.

The workshop will cover questions including (but not limited to):
– Recent case law that invokes constitutional rights to challenge extractive industries, infrastructure projects, agricultural development projects (e.g. in the context of the current transitional justice process), overall what has come to be termed as mega-development projects;
– Recent trends in applying administrative procedures relevant to development projects, e.g. consultation requirements or environmental impact assessment;
– Role of law in public-private partnerships;
– The role of international investment law in conditioning government policies and spending;
– The role (and usefulness) of national and international environmental law in contesting development planning;
– Recent trends in the governance of the relationship between projects and communities, e.g. governance by contracts;
– Public interest litigation as an attempt to challenge development projects;
– The relationship between negotiation and formalisation processes of development projects, and the efforts of peace-building at the local level.

 

Now available: Open access special issue | Journal of African Law | “The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance at 10+”

The African Union (AU) adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) in 2007 as a unique legal instrument aimed at improving the African governance landscape and addressing the daunting challenges posed by civil wars, coups d’état, gross human rights violations and election-related violence. Over the course of its 10+ years of existence, fascinating developments, challenges and questions have emerged, some of which were arguably not anticipated by its drafters.

In this special issue on the ACDEG, the Journal of African Law brings together a range of related expertise from practitioners and academics, most of whom have actively engaged in key AU institutions such as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Union Commission. The special issue covers topics such as the development of the ACDEG, its justiciability and relationship to human rights, and its implications for popular uprisings and presidential term limits.

The special issue is available for free here.  

LDRN Annual Conference: early bird & presenter registration open until 31 May!

Early bird registration is open until 31 May for the 4th Annual Conference of the Law & Development Research Network – don’t miss it! Register here

Please note that presenters are required to register by 31 May to confirm their place on the programme.

Early bird registration secures a preferential conference fee of EUR 150 for Ph.D. students / EUR 170 for professionals. For all attendees registering between 1 June & 31 August, the conference fee will be EUR 200.

Register here!

The 4th Annual Conference of the Law & Development Research Network,“The Plurality of Law and Development”, will be hosted by Humboldt University Law Faculty (Chair for Public Law and Comparative Law) in Berlin, Germany, on 25 – 27 September 2019.

Confirmed keynote speakers: Justice Madan Lokur (Former Judge at the Supreme Court of India), Prof. Katharina Pistor (Columbia Law School), Prof. David Trubek (University of Wisconsin Law School)

The call for papers has closed. 

Please visit the conference website for further details.

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Summer School on Development Aid and Migration | University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, Nottingham, UK | 24 – 28 June 2019

The University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre will hold a Summer School on Development Aid and Migration from 24-28 June 2019. This expert-led programme is aimed at students, researchers and academics, human rights defenders, and practitioners working in government, NGOs and international organizations.

The programme provides participants with the intellectual skills and instruments to understand the complex nexus between development aid, migration policy and food security.

Topics addressed will include:

  • The use of development aid as a tool for migration control
  • The outsourcing of migration control to developing countries
  • The focus on security in the context of migration control
  • The parallels between food (in)security and food aid and migration control
  • The nexus between humanitarian and development interventions

Academics and practitioners will share knowledge and insights on the role played by state and non-state actors in the development context and the workings of international and regional law and policy at the interface between hunger and migration. The summer school faculty is led by Dr. Annamaria LaChimia and Dr. Daria Davitti of Nottingham University. The programme will feature, amongst others, sessions led by Dr. Ana Aliverti of the University of Warwick Law School (LDRN partner institution) and LDRN member Likim Ng (Australian National University).

Further details and a full programme are available on the summer school website

Deadline for registration & deposit payment: 9 June 2019

From researchers to authors: LDRN partners bring together early career researchers for a successful first workshop

The first Workshop for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) under the auspices of the Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) – “From Researcher to Author: Converting Your Thesis into Publications” – was successfully held on 25-26 March 2019 – Antwerp, Belgium with the participation of 18 ECRs from 11 different universities from 10 countries around the world.

The workshop was co-organized by Dr. Gamze Erdem Türkelli of the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Celine Tan from  Warwick Law School in collaboration with Prof. Dr. John Harrington from Cardiff Law and Global Justice.  Prof. Dr. Wouter Vandenhole and Prof. Dr. Koen De Feyter of the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group also joined the workshop as mentors for ECRs.

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New research project: “Social Change for South Africa: A Law and Development Approach” | Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

LDRN member Prof. Joanna Botha, head of the Department of Public Law at the Nelson Mandela University Law Faculty (an LDRN partner institution), has received a NRF Thuthuka Grant for a three-year research project titled “Social Change for South Africa: a Law and Development Approach”.

The research project aims to augment knowledge and understanding of the role of law in promoting development, governance, equality, social cohesion and social justice in South Africa. It critiques and explores law’s capacity as a means to achieve social change in South Africa.

Two annual LLM bursaries are foreseen for research students working on connected topics. The bursaries for 2019 were awarded to Ms Priscilla Moyo (“The National Health Insurance Bill: A measure to realise the right to access health care services”) and Ms Chante Baatjes (“A comparative analysis of the sustainable development laws in South Africa and the United Kingdom”).

A call for two bursaries for 2020 will be released in the second half of this year, and will appear on LawDev.org. In terms of funding regulations, candidates should be South African citizens, though SADC citizens may be exceptionally eligible.

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LDRN member publications: March – April 2019

The following items were recently published by LDRN members, and/or may be of interest:

Deborah Casalin, Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in International Law: Prohibition and Elimination, in: Walter Leal Filho et al (eds), Decent Work and Economic Growth: Springer Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019 (online-first)

Gamze Erdem Türkelli, Eradicating Child Labor: Ending Economic Exploitation of Children as an Objective of Sustainable Development, in: Walter Leal Filho et al (eds), Decent Work and Economic Growth: Springer Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019 (online-first)

Carolien Jacobs, Joachim Ruhamya Mugenzi, Stanislas Lubala Kubiha & Innocent Assumani, Towards becoming a property owner in the city: From being displaced to becoming a citizen in urban DR Congo, Land Use Policy, Vol. 85, June 2019 (online April 2019), pp. 350-356 (free access until 5 June)

Yong-Shik Lee, Law and Development: Theory and Practice, London: Routledge, 2019

Liliana Lizarazo-Rodriguez, Human Rights Compliance Assessment (HRCA), in: Walter Leal Filho et al (eds), Decent Work and Economic Growth: Springer Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019 (online-first)

Liliana Lizarazo-Rodriguez, The UN ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’: Methodological Challenges to Assessing the Third Pillar: Access to Effective Remedy, Nordic Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 36, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 353 – 370.

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LDRN members are welcome to announce their latest publications via this monthly list – please send references and links to the Editor by the final Monday of the month.

Call for external evaluators: Research programme on security and rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected settings | NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development | Deadline: 20 May 2019

NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development, part of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), has launched a Terms of Reference for the final review of the research programme on Security and Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings (SRoL). This review will have a dual purpose of learning and accountability; the reviewers will assess the performance of the programme in terms of results, and identify recommendations to improve research programming and funding for development.

See the full terms of reference here

NWO-WOTRO invites interested parties to submit an application for this evaluation on 20 May 2019, 2 PM CEST at the latest.

Evaluators from low- and middle-income countries are encouraged to apply. The external evaluator will be selected in early June 2019, and the evaluation will start soon thereafter.

Vacancy: Two-year postdoctoral position | Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, Sweden | Deadline: 15 May 2019

The Department of Sociology at Uppsala University in Sweden is hiring a postdoc to begin September 2019. The two-year postdoctoral position is part of an international and interdisciplinary research project  JUSTEMOTIONS; The Construction of Objectivity: An international perspective on the emotive-cognitive process of judicial decision-making. The project is financed by the European Research Council (ERC).

The first year of the postdoctoral position will be spent collecting data in the US. Working with Professor Terry Maroney of Vanderbilt, the postdoc will collect data at state courts and prosecution offices of different levels (lower, appeal) and in different states.

Closing date: 15 May 2019

See full description and apply

Learn more about the research project JUSTEMOTIONS

Learn more about the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University

Vacancy: Postdoctoral researcher, Development Processes, Actors and Policies | Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp | Deadline: 12 May

The Institute of Development Policy (IOB) of the University of Antwerp is seeking to fill a full-time vacancy for a post-doctoral researcher in the area of “Development Processes, Actors and Policies”.

Profile and requirements

  • You hold a doctorate degree (PhD) in Development Studies or related social science disciplines.
  • Your work is preferably interdisciplinary in nature and preferably engages with a mixture of methodological approaches.
  • You have an international academic CV and perform qualitatively outstanding academic research, enabling you to qualify for seeking external finance as post-doctoral researcher.
  • You are quality-oriented, conscientious, creative and cooperative.
  • Your publication track record demonstrates your potential to act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research, for instance, by means of (co-) authorship of articles or (co-)promotorship of projects in the domain.
  • You have an excellent knowledge of English. Knowledge of French is a plus.

See the full vacancy notice for more information and to apply

Deadline: 12 May 2019