IN MEMORIAM: PROF KOEN DE FEYTER – ON BEHALF OF THE LAW AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH NETWORK

It is with deep sadness that the Law and Development Research Network (the LDRN) mark the passing of Koen De Feyter on 20 September. Koen was a professor of international law and dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp, where he completed his doctorate. He was previously attached to the Human Rights Centre of the University of Maastricht, the Institute of Development Policy of the University of Antwerp and served as the Academic Coordinator of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation (Venice, Italy). He is a former Chair of Amnesty International Belgium (1998-1999).

Koen was an expert in human rights and North-South relations, socio-legal research in non-Western countries such as Bolivia, China, DRC, India, Palestine, and law and development generally. He worked with the UN Human Rights Council on the recognition of a right to development. He was a driving force in the establishment of the LDRN. Koen was also the LDRN’s informal chair until mid-September 2024. His contribution to the establishment of a global approach to law and development and an infused global justice agenda into law and development was significant. His work will continue to inspire the Network’s research and practice.

Koen’s output was substantial. His publications include World Development Law (2001), Human Rights and Social Justice in the Age of the Market (2005), Out of the Ashes: Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights (2006, co-ed.), Economic Globalisation and Human Rights (2007, co-ed.), The Right to Development : a treaty and its discontents (2016), and the Encyclopaedia of Law and Development (2021, co-ed.) Koen was instrumental in ensuring the involvement of scholars from across the globe is the compilation of the Encyclopaedia, a work which involved many of the Network’s partners as co-editors and co-authors. This collaborative approach epitomises Koen – as a person and as a scholar. He also published numerous articles in journals such as the Loyola University of New Orleans Human Rights Review, the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and the Africa Legal Aid Quarterly.

The Network (the LDRN) extends its deepest condolences to Koen’s family. He was a remarkable individual and scholar who inspired and guided many across the globe. Koen’s influence will endure through his body of work and the lasting impact he made on the students, researchers, and the colleagues he engaged with throughout his career. We will miss you, Koen, and will ensure that your legacy is reflected in the Network’s work in the future.

To ensure that everyone who knew Koen has the opportunity to attend the funeral taking place this Friday, 27 September, at 15:00 CET, a livestream will be provided, which you can access via this link: https://storycatchers.live/uitvaart-koen-de-feyter/. This link may be shared with others within your network who knew Koen.

Please note that the University of Antwerp has made available a Condolences Registry that his colleagues, students and friends from all over the world could sign to be delivered to Koen’s family. 

Upcoming Deadlines for Opportunities, Calls for Papers & Events (June 2023)

Calls for Abstracts / Papers / Expressions of Interest

Call for Papers: Critical Legal Conference 2023, Durham Law School (Deadline for submitting abstracts: 30 June 2023)

Call for Abstracts: Symposium on ‘Russia, Imperialism, and International Law’, The Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel (Deadline to submit abstracts: 3 July 2023)

Call for Papers on International Criminal Jurisdiction, Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (3-4) 2023 (Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2023)

Call for Papers: Global Constitutionalism and Supranational Adjudicative Bodies: Global South Experiences vis-à-vis Hegemony, The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo (Deadline to submit abstracts: 21 August 2023)

Vacancies / Fellowships / Scholarships

Project Officer, the International Nuremberg Principles Academy (20 June 2023)

Call for Applications: 5 (5-year) PhD positions, Erasmus School of Law in the department Law & Markets (21 June 2023)

6-month program of support and training for human rights defenders, Marianne Initiative for Human Rights Defenders (6 July 2023)

Events

Conference: The crime of apartheid in South Africa and beyond, University of Nottingham (22 – 23 June 2023)

2023 Summer School Course ‘Human Rights & Persons Deprived of Liberty’, The ERC-IMPACTUM team, the Programme for Studies on Human Rights in Context, the Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, and the Global Campus on Human Rights (27 – 30 June 2023)

Symposium ‘intersecting water, environmental justice and human rights’,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) (6 July 2023)

Human Rights and Procedure: Perspectives of International Law, Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law (6 – 7 July 2023)

Workshop on Protest Movements and International Law, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (2-3 November 2023)

Oceans, Justice & Human Rights Conference, 3 – 5 November 2022 (hybrid), LDRN / NMU Public Law / Warwick Law School / SARChI Chair in the Law of the Sea and Development in Africa / SA International Maritime Institute / Coastal and Marine Research Institute

On 3 – 5 November, LDRN partner institutions Nelson Mandela University Department of Public Law and Warwick University School of Law will host the Oceans, Justice and Human Rights Conference in a hybrid format – in conjunction with LDRN, as well as the SARChI Chair in the Law of the Sea and Development in Africa, the South African International Maritime Institute and the Coastal and Marine Research Institute. The physical event will take place at the NMU Ocean Sciences Campus in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.

The conference will provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussions about the relationship between the oceans, justice and human rights, and will cover a wide range of issues related to ocean governance, including sustainability, development, climate change, the human rights of people living in close proximity to the ocean and impacted upon by environmental violations, and climate and environmental justice.

Keynote addresses

Prof. David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment (3 November)

Prof Erik Franckx, Chair of the International and European Law Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (4 November)

The conference will otherwise be comprised of  90-minute sessions combining presentations and panel discussions on 3 – 4 November, followed by a stakeholder/community engagement session on Saturday 5 November.

We hope many members of the LDRN community will be able to join us for this exciting event, whether in person or online!

Further programme details

To join online via Zoom:

3 November

4 November

5 November

Meeting ID: 449 307 2424

Passcode: Justice

 

Upcoming Academic Opportunities, Calls & Online Events: October & Later Deadlines

Calls for abstracts / papers / chapters / book proposals
 
Call for Participation – FRI Gender Law Conference, In-corpore: what the law does to our bodies, University of Neuchatel (abstract deadline: 14 October 2022)
 

7th Gary B. Born Essay Competition on International Arbitration 2022, Centre for Advanced Research and Training in Arbitration Law & Indian Journal of Arbitration Law, National Law University, Jodhpur (essay deadline: 30 October 2022)

Vacancies / fellowships / scholarships
 

Assistant Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2 Positions), The Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of Rhode Island (First and second considerations 1 and 15 October 2022)  

Associate to Full Professor, The Department of Criminology, Law and Society (CLS) at the University of California, Irvine (Next review date: 17 October 2022. Final review date: 31 December 2022)

Assistant professor – Law and Society, University of Toronto, Canada (10 December 2022)

Applications for Visiting Scholars Program, Center for the Study of Law and Society, UC Berkeley (18 November 2022)

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law/Clinical Professor of Law, Irvine School of Law, the University of California (Final review date: 28 February 2023)

Assistant or Associate Professor, The School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany – State University of New York (Until filled)

Online events
 

Business and human rights: from national practice to international binding standards, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (12 October 2022)

The International Criminal Court 2002-2022: A Court in Practice, Nuremberg Forum 2022 (13-15 October 2022)

Upcoming academic opportunities: May & later deadlines

Calls for abstracts / papers / chapters / book proposals
 
 
Making the Multilateral Investment Court Beneficial for Sub-Saharan Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, 24 – 25 November 2022 (abstract deadline: 27 May 2022) 
 

The Law and Political Economy of Business and Human Rights: A Turn to Root Causes?, Erasmus School of Law Rotterdam, The Netherlands (hybrid), 10 – 11 November 2022 (abstract deadline: 17 June 2022) 

Jurisprudence of the Future: Science Fiction and the Legal Imaginary, Alex Green, Mitchell Travis and Kieran Tranter (eds), Routledge TechNomos series (abstract deadline: 19 August 2022) 
 
Revista Internacional de Derechos Humanos (English), Universidad Austral (rolling deadline)
 
Routledge Law, Language & Communication series, Anne Wagner & Vijay Kumar Batia (eds) (rolling deadline)
 
 
Vacancies / fellowships / scholarships
 
Two post-doctoral fellowships – census questions on race and ethnicity, Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice, Division for Equity and Inclusion, University of New Mexico, USA (deadline: 1 June 2022) 
 
Assistant professorship – Criminal law / criminology, Tilburg University Law School, The Netherlands (deadline: 15 June 2022) 
 
Assistant professorship – Global Challenges in the Anthropocene, Tilburg University Law School, The Netherlands (deadline: 15 June 2022) 
 
Assistant professorship – Jurisprudence, Tilburg University Law School, The Netherlands (deadline: 15 June 2022) 
 
Assistant professorship – Public administration / governance, Tilburg University Law School, The Netherlands (deadline: 15 June 2022) 
 
Assistant professorship – Public international law, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (deadline: 18 June 2022) 
 
Postdoctoral position – ENERGIZE: Re-Shaping International Investment Law for the Green Transition, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (deadline: 24 June 2022) 
 
2022-2023 Global South Visiting Scholar In-Residence Program, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (deadline: 30 June 2022) 
 
 
 
Online events
Workshop: Building a transnational research agenda on biodiversity litigation, University of Antwerp Law & Development Research Group (online), 3 June 2022 (registration required)
 
Winter School: Bayesian reasoning for process tracing, comparative case studies, and qualitative research, FGV EAESP Sao Paulo (online), 11 – 15 July 2022 (registration deadline: 30 June 2022)

Upcoming LDRN partner events (April/ April deadlines): Leiden VVI lecture / ISS Development Dialogues

Van Vollenhoven Institute lecture: “Difference and empire, or on the importance of thinking otherwise” by Dr. Luis Eslava (14 April, online)
 
The Van Vollenhoven Institute is excited to announce the final talk of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s 2021-2022 Lecture Series, Reconsidering the Socio-Legal Gaze by Dr. Luis Eslava. Dr. Eslava’s lecture, entitled “Difference and empire, or on the importance of thinking otherwise,” will focus broadly on law and development. The lecture will take place next Thursday, 14 April from 15:30 – 17:00 over Zoom.
 
Dr. Eslava is a Reader in International Law at University of Kent in the UK. A cutting-edge socio-legal scholar, his research has explored questions of law and everyday life in Colombia, decolonial histories of law, and the politics of international law.. Register for the lecture here.

 

Call for abstracts: ISS Development Dialogues (deadline: 17 April 2022) 

The call for abstracts for the 18th ISS Development Dialogues conference “Doing Development Differently” is open. The conference will take place on 17 – 18 October 2022. It is aimed at PhD candidates and will focus on four themes:

  • Theme 1: Politics of development: governance, institutions, and citizen participation
  • Theme 2: Researching development differently: transformative, participatory, collaborative, and digital research
  • Theme 3: Multi-disciplinary approaches to development
  • Theme 4: Decolonizing development: knowledge, ethics & accountability, and power relations.

Interested PhD candidates can fill in this online application and submit their abstracts by Sunday, April 17th, 2022.

See here for more info.

Upcoming academic opportunities & online events: June and later deadlines [UPDATED]

Calls for papers

The Future of Human Rights: 40th Anniversary Special Issue, Nordic Journal of Human Rights (abstract deadline: 25 June 2021)

Special Issue on Data, Law and Decolonization, Technology & Regulation journal (abstract deadline: 15 August 2021)

Vacancies / scholarships / fellowships

5 PhD scholarships – Human Rights and Global Politics: Legal, Philosophical and Economic Challenges, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy (deadline: 3 June 2021)

Assistant Professor in Anti-Black Racism and Resistance, Sociology Department, UC Santa Barbara, USA (deadline: 28 June 2021)

Mysun Foundation Clinical Fellow, Environmental Law Clinic, University of California – Irvine School of Law, USA (deadline: 21 July 2021)

PhD Scholarship ERC Grant CURIAE VIRIDES – Sustainable development law and access to justice, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (deadline: 28 July 2021)

Two Postdoctoral Scholars – Information and Security, University of Calgary, Canada (deadline: 30 July 2021)

Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor Position – Labor and Employment Law, Cornell University, USA (deadline: 1 September 2021)

UCI Global Scholars Early Career Fellowship, University of California, Irvine, USA (deadline: 1 October 2021)

 

Online events

The relevance of perspectives from the global South for human rights law research – closing seminar with Prof. Thomas Spijkerboer, International Francqui Professor Chair / University of Ghent, 1 June 2021

Cooperation or Externalisation: online debate on the impact of the EU migration policy on countries in Africa, University of Ghent / 11.11.11, 4 June 2021

Re-Imagining Agenda 2063: The Socio-Legal Foundation of the Africa We Want, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada / Liu Network for Africa, 21 – 24 June 2021

Watch: highlights of the Encyclopedia of Law & Development festive launch

On 12 March 2021, the Law & Development Research Network (LDRN) and the University of Antwerp Law & Development Research Group held a festive online launch for the Encyclopedia of Law and Development, a collaborative creation of editors and authors from across and beyond LDRN.

Watch the highlights below or on the LDRN Youtube channel!

Upcoming academic opportunities & online events: March and later deadlines

Vacancies / fellowships

7 PhD / post-doc positions – Future-proofing human rights: developing thicker forms of accountability | UAntwerp / UGent / UHasselt / VUBrussels, Belgium (various deadlines: 14 March – 11 April 2021)

NIAS Individual Fellowships | Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (deadline: 15 March 2021)

15 PhD positions – Eradicating Poverty: Pathways towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals | European Joint Doctorate Consortium ADAPTED, various locations  (deadline: 31 March 2021)

Two DAAD doctoral scholarships – Integrative Research Institute Law & Society | Humboldt University Berlin (deadline: 30 April 2021)

Calls for papers

WIDER Development Conference: COVID-19 and development – effects and new realities for the Global South | United Nations University (online), 6 – 8 September 2021 (abstract deadline: 15 April 2021)

Workshop: The Potential of Public Interest Litigation in International Law | University of Exeter / University of Geneva (format tbc), 11 – 12 November 2021 (abstract deadline: 30 April 2021)

Online events

Greening human rights – the role of ecocentric courts | Curiae Virides – VUBrussels, Belgium (18 March 2021)

Empirical legal research sessions – reflexivity / survey research / indigenous epistemology / focus groups | Leiden Law School, The Netherlands (4 separate sessions: 25 March – 30 September 2021)

 

Join us for the festive launch of the Encyclopedia of Law & Development! | University of Antwerp (online), 12 March 2021

FESTIVE BOOK LAUNCH

FRIDAY 12 MARCH, 3 – 4.30 PM CET (UTC+1)

Register here!

Encyclopedia of Law and Development

 Edited by Koen De Feyter, Gamze Erdem Türkelli and Stéphanie de Moerloose

Associate Editors : Philipp Dann, Celine Tan, Elina Pirjatanniemi, Avinash Govindjee

Published by Edward Elgar

Publication Date: 2021 ISBN: 978 1 78811 796 8 Extent: 336 pp

The Encyclopedia is a collaborative effort of LDRn, the Law and Development Research Network

Read the introductory chapter here

This Virtual Panel discussion celebrates the publication of the Encyclopedia of Law and Development.  Our panelists will reflect on the state and future of law and development research.  Short presentations will be followed by an exchange with the audience, moderated by Encyclopedia General Editor Gamze Erdem Türkelli.

Our panelists include:

Stéphanie de Moerloose, Austral University, Buenos Aires

Nadia Latif, Smith College, Northampton (US)

Ada Ordor, University of Cape Town

Daniel Mathew, National Law University New Delhi

Abdul Paliwala and Sam Adelman, University of Warwick

Philipp Dann, Humboldt University of Berlin

Please register here

A special launch discount is available from Edward Elgar Publishers

  • 30% for readers in OECD countries – discount code: DFEY30
  • 60% for readers in non-OECD countries – discount code: DFEY60
  • An e-book edition for individuals is also available from Google Play at an accessible price

This event is hosted by the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group, in conjunction with the Law & Development Research Network